Is Google preparing to kill Google Reader?

The news that Google is killing off Adsense for Feeds is disconcerting. What is Google Reader from Google's POV? It is a vehicle for displaying the ads that they were placing in RSS feeds. If they are no longer doing that, why would they continue to support Google Reader?

This concerns me. I'm a fan of RSS. The format has never really received the respect it deserves in the tech world. That is probably because it has proved difficult to build an enterprise business on RSS feeds. Also, it might be because RSS is an open standard. Tech companies today would rather make us download another proprietary app to consume their content, when it be much easier to do the same with RSS and a web browser.

Facebook used to offer RSS feeds, as did Twitter. However, RSS feeds are not a walled garden, and whether it is Google with their ubiquitous black bar, or Facebook as AOL 2.0, or Twitter shutting down all the useful apps built on their ecosystem, controlling the user and wringing every possible dollar out of them seems to be the business plan in favor these days.

Didn't we already try this? AOL lost, right?