I saw a PBS program on the Packard. It had beautiful photography but was a complete loss on commercial issues.
The Packard died in the mid-1950s, after a failed effort to create a larger corporation out of several smaller automakers.
The PBS experts offered several reasons that Packard died, but being PBS experts they were incompetent and foolish. They focused entirely on design and internal corporate bickering.
What really killed Packard were three elements important in the mid-1950s: One, labor unions were growing stronger and making it impossible for small auto companies to survive. Two, the international market was beginning to open up as Europe recovered from the War and only a large corporation could take advantage of the new markets. Three, the big three companies, GM, Ford and Chrysler had a wide range of lines from low price too high price and were able to understand market forces much better with a variety of products.
(Photo: 1941 Woody Packard. My father bought one of these in 1954 and had my three brothers and I restore it.)