As an AA elite I certainly haven't been excited about the upcoming merger... but I doubt you'll find many AA elites who, while agreeing that elite benefits and the FF program on AA have been outstanding, won't acknowledge that over the past decade, AA's management basically drove the airline into the ground and really didn't seem to have any plan to turn it around other than their ridiculous strategy of 5 cornerstones and leaving a good deal of international flying to their partners.
Partner flying is better for me as long as I get low fares and 100% mileage.