Wrong, the lost decade was because of 911, resession, and the increase of the retirement age to 65

Which caused mainline stagnating and a focus on regional growth to cut costs.

Wasn't most of the regional growth prior to the so called "lost decade"?

Mainline stagnation was caused mostly by retiring the old three crew jets and having a surplus of pilots to go with the downturn in the economy.

There is no pilot shortage. In 2015, the FAA issued 6,430 ATP certificates, and in the first eight months of 2016, the FAA reported that they had issued 6,530 ATP certificates, including 599 R-ATP certificates. That's more than what all airlines have hired in that time. There is no pilot shortage.

If mainline wants more RJs or more larger RJs, nothing stops them from operating them in house, nothing. There is no pilot shortage.

This is why they need to stay at the regionals, so costs can be contained and frequency maintained.

I'm just pointing out that IF there truly was a pilot shortage, mainline could do ALL the flying. But there isn't one. So no need to repeal the ATP rule either way.

Anytime a commodity is scarce, in your argument, pilots, the price of it goes up. The facts show that there have been thousands of ATPs issued since the ATP rule on top of the hundred thousand other ATPs. There are more ATPs than airline pilots. There is no pilot shortage. The only reason why pay is going up is because pay isn't high enough for the thousands of current non-airline pilot rated ATPs to work as an airline pilot. There is a pay shortage.

So why did it not happen on the contracts just signed? That's when they needed it with orders and aircraft already on the books or rumored.

Because management at AA and UAL are still working on their pilot groups to concede to larger RJ's. Once they do, DALPA will be forced to concede also or be faced with an untenable position.

There is no such work in progress at the present. I am one of those senior guys you say would take the money. It's not the case and no one around my seniority feels that way. We will fight this to the death.
We lived all the supposed benefits you claim. Management preached it over and over. None of it came true. Keep in mind that control of the unions at Delta, AA and UAL for the next contracts will be mostly pilots who lived the RJ debacle and ended up furloughed. I can assure you like the senior guys they will fight it to the grave! The mere mention of outsourcing 90-100 seat airframes in a management opener will immediately lead to a woeful lack of enthusiasm. The feelings are that strong. The limit will stay at 76 seats. I don't even think a small weight increase to accommodate the newer 76 seaters that exceed the current weight limit will happen.
The other factor you don't mention is the poor performance of the regionals. That was a big part of Delta management bringing more of that flying back in house. After 20 years of trying they realize that it is not going to get fixed.