Well, I'm a big SP apologist, but even I won't go against the grain and say that there isn't something wrong going on, business-wise. He needs to drop everything (figuratively), and start fixing things and filling orders, starting with the oldest ones first.
I actually understand (though do not approve) of the false promises -- I've done the same thing myself. If you make a promise to meet a deadline out loud to someone else, you're more likely to make it then if you just set yourself an internal deadline. Of course, once you start breaking them, the others start being easier to break as well, that's when you fall down the downward spiral that appears to be happening with SP.
I really hope he repairs his business before he goes completely under.