Knowing that this was a long time a-coming, even before AA announced, doesn't take the sting out because since the USAIR merger most trips started/ended with two 355 mile legs LGB-PHX that netted 2k.
On my first trip of this new non-segmentarian era, LGB-PHX-DEN nets out at 1552, close to a quarter haircut from the "everything used to be better" days. Sigh.