I remember years ago talking to a web designer who predicted this very scenario , why would google give away the best positions? they are a business who are out to make money Adwords was always going to take over the first page.
Google knows people are lazy and will do the best they can to stay sat in a chair doing nothing, so they sold the idea that the internet is the future, they killed other ways of finding a company ( e.g.; yellow pages) so what choice did people have? Use the 'free' internet, And that's what everyone did but unfortunately it was all a con.
Google got everyone hooked then like a pimp hanging around a school yard offering free samples they then started to charge for what once was free