I doubt it was a big splash of news given that leap seconds have been a fairly routine thing for quite a while. Lately there’s been talk about a possible negative leap second, as Earth’s rotation speed has been increasing for a few years now. Many things can have a measurable on Earth’s rotation, including dynamics of the molten outer core, earthquakes, ocean currents, and melting of polar ice caused by the climate change.
Even before we invented precise enough clocks that there was any need for leap seconds, we knew that Earth’s rotation is slowing down due to tidal drag – the moon is literally robbing angular momentum from Earth, and getting farther from Earth in the process. Back in the Cambrian, day length was around 21 hours. Shortly after the formation of the moon, 4.5Ga ago, it would have been only around five hours, assuming the giant impact hypothesis is correct.
Leap seconds are just an imperfection in how we measure days. The recent splash was largely because it was being blamed on changes due to global warming.
In any case, it all goes to my point- the Earth's mass has no bearing on its rotational speed.
Even before we invented precise enough clocks that there was any need for leap seconds, we knew that Earth’s rotation is slowing down due to tidal drag – the moon is literally robbing angular momentum from Earth, and getting farther from Earth in the process. Back in the Cambrian, day length was around 21 hours. Shortly after the formation of the moon, 4.5Ga ago, it would have been only around five hours, assuming the giant impact hypothesis is correct.