As someone that has spend a big time of my development projects on Microsoft platforms, I tend to think all those issues are side effects from internal politics.
Just when team X is about to score, they end up loosing management support, thus the product gets canned while others pick up the idea.
I agree. And the problem is, each time this cycle happens, the company burns any consumer goodwill it's worked to achieve. (You see the same frantic, uncommitted stance to products with new Google initiatives these days.)
It's easy to see and say "this product is costing us money and isn't popular enough", and fail to realize "killing products over and over means people aren't going to try our next one". Long term stable support of a product line, even if it's not a top seller, is what's going to earn you consumer trust.
Just when team X is about to score, they end up loosing management support, thus the product gets canned while others pick up the idea.