yes, Google has several crtieria so may be due a change you did on website it took negatively and dropped you and with back link put you back again.
Google has negative points as well so if they penalize you they can put you -40 or -80 ranks down but once they see you have corrected the mistake they put you back.
Its all about page rank points, they keep on adding and deducting. So this up and down ranking issue.