Well, after our fight at the end of 2.0, Galean had a massive Civil War over who would replace the suddenly died of old age ruler. This is explained, albeit rather quickly, during the King Moggle Mog arc.
Fast foward to 3.0, we meet the new emperor, Varis. He showboats a bit in front of Eorzea's hero, then bamfs out to leave his men to do the work in his city sized airship. We're essentially led to believe he's been more or less cleaning house in the empire upon gaining control. So, he's been pretty dang busy while we're trying to get elves and dragons to chill.
