Power gradually diminishes rather than dramatically declining in the spotlight. It quietly erodes over time, until a leader realises their once weighty decisions now face doubt and qualification. This gradual weakening is usually explained as a shift in sentiment or a tougher media cycle. A quieter cause sits underneath it: narrative drift, the slow separation between what a leader is understood to stand for and what their actions, choices and presence now suggest.

What people see as a sudden fall is usually the moment a longer internal drift becomes impossible to ignore. Boards and executives often experience that moment as a surprise because the signals were dispersed, partial or inconvenient. The external rupture feels abrupt only because the organisation had become practiced at quietly managing disagreement, uncertainty and weak accountability.