As companies grow, their politics changes. It's a fact of life. You want to keep working at a startup, quit and go find a job at another startup.

If this bitch-fest affects his career at all, it won't be in a good way.

I've seen more than one developer lose their jobs over politics. One guy, I've seen sabotage job after job over his idealism. I try to help him but you can't teach political savvy to an unwilling student. He hears and understands me, then goes and does the exact opposite of what I tell him to do. And it has exactly the effect I predicted.

I maintain that the biggest reason developers can't get ahead is because they don't have the stomach for politics.