Travel for my job picked up in the last year and I now have silver elite status on two different airlines (Continental and Northwest).

I am wondering: this year, am I better off to discontinue my FF account on one of these airlines since they're part of the same alliance and try to earn gold or platinum status on one carrier, instead of silver on two carriers? I fly about 80K a year (mostly on those two airlines though occasionally on JetBlue). Are there any downsides to doing this?

Sorry if this is a silly question to the experts -- I'm sort of new to all of this Any advice is much appreciated!