I'd have to say it was actually Saruman's lust for power that changed his career path, or Saruman falling under many of the seven deadly sins....
He was proud (to the point of being arrogant and pompous)...
He lusted for power
He envied Sauron and Eru
He was definitely and angry man as well as Greedy.
I think a key turning point in Saruman's career change comes from something we see in the Timeline from the appendices:
Quote:
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2939: Saruman discovers that Sauron's servabts are searching the Anduin near Gladden fields, and that Sauron therefor has learned of Isildur's death. He is alarmed but says nothing to the Council.
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He's not evil at this time, as far as we can tell, I mean evil as in how he turns up in LOTR. However, you have to question why he didn't warn the Council about Sauron searching for the Ring? Perhaps he had his own plans to try to stop Sauron, but wanted to handle matters on his own?
What's important to remember about Saruman is besides his Uruk-hai and dunlanders he is alone. He is evil, but not Sauron evil, he actually has plans to undermine Sauron. He's not good, well because he has the same plans as Sauron, world domination. Saruman and Sauron are both after the same thing, so therefor they can't be on the same side.
It reminds me of the Hitler-Stalin, Germany/Russia pact. Hitler made a pact with Stalin, which stated they wouldn't attack eachother. It's not like an alliance where they help eachother out with money and forces, it's just an agreement to "hey we both want the same thing, so let's just not attack eachother (for right now). Let me deal with the west, leave me alone, and I'll leave you alone." Hitler was actually using Stalin to make sure Germany didn't have to fight a two-front war. Too bad Hitler foolishly thought he defeated the West when he turned to attack Stalin.
Reminiscent of the Sauron-Saruman relationship. Tolkien never really wanted them to seem like an alliance, more of just agreeing "since we're both after the same thing, let's just leave eachother alone." "Hey I got Gondor to deal with, you got Rohan, let's just not attack eachother since we're both after the same thing." Sauron was only using Saruman so he didn't have to have two extra people to worry about (Saruman himself, and Rohan) too bad Saruman couldn't get the job done. And Saruman foolishly believed he was in control of the situation, and devised his own schemes to get the Ring.