CaveNews has posted a Q&A with Cavedog's Greg MacMartin, talking about their recent decision to let go a large portion of their design team (thanks VE). Here's an excerpt which sheds some light on this decision:

...what it came down to was this: The company decided that finishing the engine as soon as possible was VITAL....and because of this, they wanted to do whatever it took to achieve that. It was an extremely difficult decision for management to make, but it was decided that without an entire design team on board it could allow the programmers to finish the technology in the most efficient way possible.