Gerstner saved IBM from irrelevance and possible bankruptcy. Palmisano turned it from a hardware company into a services company, a services company particularly adept at outsourcing.
It is not lithe. These guys steer the company 5 years into the future. They have an advantage in that where they move, they tend to change the future, but if they pick a bad direction, the company is screwed for at least a decade.
The sour grapes you're hearing are not from people who were OS/2 or Thinkpad loyalists, they're from present and former employees.