This all started in the Senate. The AVERAGE age of the Senate is over 60. On one side you had a bunch of people whose pensions were terminated a few years before they were going to retire, trying to survive, especially US Air and United. On the other side you had people arguing that a 61 year old was too old and decrepit to fly an airliner. You were making this argument to 70-75 year old men. Guess which side won. ALPA didn't sell anyone out. They were run over by the US Senate which has much more power than any one union or all unions combined.
This should have been processed through the FAA and the normal Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) process. The FAA and the Bush administration made promises to these Senators and they didn't follow through. It is not good to ignore US Senators.