The truth of the matter is...if a small community suffers a significant economic hardship from the loss of an airline, then they were far too reliant on it to begin with.

It's the community that should be subsidizing the airline to continue some level of service. Asking the federal government to step in because the 20 people/week that need to fly from Podunk to BigCity for a connection flight isn't fair to the other 300 million American taxpayers. If Podunk needs that service so badly, then they can a.) pay to keep it or b.) buy a few shuttle buses and give their residents free rides to the gateway airport.