Safe to say that the mood of last week–with its anticipation of change–is a distant memory. A different kind of anticipation permeated the tech and online media industries, one more reminiscent of April 2001. There was news all around of layoffs, pending layoffs, bankruptcies and stock dives.

To wit:

Digital Daily offered up a body count of companies in the tech sector that have been beaten into whimpering submission. Nortel (NT), once a telecom high-flyer, lost $3.4 billion in Q3. The company announced plans to lay off five percent of its workforce–including some high-ranking executives–eliminating 2,500 positions. Other high-ranking execs are taking part in the econalypse too, notably Kevin Kettler, Dell’s (DELL) chief technology officer. A week after the computer maker began offering workers voluntary separation plans, Kettler decided to take the company up on it. No word on how many followed suit. Other victims of the gloomy economy are Circuit City (CC), which declared bankruptcy this week, and Intel (INTC), which faced “sharply lower revenue.”

Media Memo presented a handy index of actual online advertising sales results (courtesy of Jupiter Media) and noted that the ad slowdown has hit Google (GOOG), too. Nick Denton, Gawker Media publisher, folded Valleywag into Gawker.com, the flagship blog of the media empire and, in an ironically appropriate move, put Consumerist up for sale. Denton, doom-mongerer of the econalypse, would surely appreciate the following layoff roll call: Condé Net and Time Inc., not once, but twice. No, wait. Three times.

BoomTown was on a Yahoo (YHOO) roll this week, writing about the company’s upcoming layoffs and its stock plunge. Just to squash rumors: Jerry Yang will not be laid off. Social media, mainly Twitter, became a hot topic this week in terms of its effect on the PR industry, and BoomTown had something to say about it. Also noted was the good humor of Mobuzz video, which made a plea to its users to donate five euros apiece to keep it afloat. And in case you were wondering what makes BoomTown impatient, the main two things this week were Microsoft’s (MSFT) continuing failure to find a head for its digital business and Yahoo/AOL’s failure to make anything happen in the ongoing yawn-fest of a nonacquisition.

In Personal Technology, Walt Mossberg gave the lowdown on Wi-Fi for your car, and in Mossberg’s Mailbox discussed disabling Wi-Fi on a laptop. In The Mossberg Solution, Katherine Boehret reviewed the Flip MinoHD, the latest addition to the Flip family, and its first foray into hi-def.

It’s been nary a week since an econalypse-brutalized Dell (DELL) began offering workers voluntary separation plans, and Kettler is apparently leading the charge to take the company up on it. CNET News reports that he plans to leave the computer maker in January to “focus on his family and his many interests beyond Dell.”

Interestingly, Kettler’s Dell bio appears to be one step ahead of the CTO as he heads for the door. It’s already been removed from Dell’s executive team Web page.

UPDATE: A Dell spokesperson writes in to say that in his role as chief technology officer, Kettler is not a member of the Dell Executive Leadership Team. Which explains why his bio doesn’t appear on the executive team Web page. Still, a curious omission. From his bio, one would assume Kettler would be just the sort of guy Dell would want helping to determine its strategic direction:

Dr. Kevin Kettler is responsible for the design, development, and performance analysis of core architectures for the Dell product portfolio, including client, server, storage, imaging, and consumer products. He is also responsible for defining and driving Dell’s strategic technology initiatives and solutions around the scalable enterprise, flexible computing, and digital home. Dr. Kettler oversees Dell’s technical positions related to domestic and international regulatory and government policy. In addition, he frequently serves as a Dell spokesperson on innovation and technology.”