Pulis departed Selhurst Park on Friday, with a disagreement over the club's transfer policy reportedly the reason for a break down in relations between the 56-year-old and the Palace hierarchy.
And Bruce - who himself departed Palace acrimoniously in 2001 - conceded the news had come as something of a surprise, having not sensed that anything was wrong when with Pulis earlier this week.
"I'm surprised like everybody else," he said. "In football, nothing should surprise us anymore.
"We had a league managers meeting on Tuesday and I went for a beer with Tony for half an hour and everything seemed perfectly normal with him.
"But there's obviously something gone amiss and what's happened I think is no shock to anybody really, because it is football, but just before the start of the season, the timing is incredible and that's why it's made the headlines today."
Bruce has been backed in the transfer market by chairman Assem Allam since Hull arrived in the Premier League, and believes the relationship between managers and their employers are paramount in the success of a club.
"You don't take that [the decision] lightly and I think the biggest relationship we've all got as managers now is your relationship with your chairman, your owner, your chief executive, whoever that's going to be.
"Because it is a really difficult job that we all face and, if that relationship is not good, then it is a really, really difficult job.
"It looks from the outside like being a breakdown in communication between the two of them.
"I'm sure he'll be back, but he's done a wonderful job there.
"Personally, I'm glad he's out of the road!"
