They seem to have bounced from losing faith in one department to another in looking for the failings of the car & team.
They lost trust in Meeke, then the engineers/designers and followed that up with the management. Only now do they have a recognised championship contender driving the car to eliminate at least that doubt, Meeke was fast but erratic, so for engineers it was easy to point the finger. In honesty they probably lost most of 2017 blaming him when the car wasn’t working.
It does look like they are now pulling the right way, but I have to say it looks like progress is slow from the outside...