Not unlike a bad marriage ..

[ShakaZulu]

Not unlike a bad marriage where the couple is staying together for the sake of the children is what I liken the current relationship between webmasters and Google to. Each is dependent upon the other to provide a service.
Google NEEDS developers to inform and allow them to index their work and the webmasters and seo's need Google to index their sites for the exposure. Since this is a co-dependent situation for the life of me I can't figure out why there is an adversarial relationship between the two at present?.

[jeremy goodrich]

Webmasters (seo folks in particular) are trying to monetize the same database that Google is also trying to monetize and as you said, each exerts their own form of 'control' though, neither party has the upper hand, in reality. :)

Some SEO folks are trying to monetize, as best as possible, the free listings - which Google also monetizes, though indirectly, through the sales of their advertising products.

So in some ways - you could look at it that both parties are competing for the same advertising dollars.

Though, in many ways, it is a feedback loop which benefits all:

The serious marketer will use adwords to their advantage, making Google money and gaining valuable data.

Then, they will leverage the "free listings" for their time so that Google can index as best as possible their valuable content.

In the end, everybody wins, though there is competition for those marketing dollars which, yes, does create a bit of 'adversarialness'