Why are so many senators abdicating their thrones?

Today Mike Johanns announced he was retiring from the Senate and will not seek another term.  This guy is a career politician of little import or impact.  He has no value to society and has been making a fat living on the public dole as a senator for many years now.  Intelligent people will want to ponder why he is walking away from all that power and pomp at this particular time.  The article states, "Johanns becomes the fifth sitting senator to opt against seeking another term, joining Democrats Jay Rockefeller (W.Va.), Tom Harkin (Iowa) and Frank Lautenberg (N.J.), and Republican Saxby Chambiss (Ga.)."

Call me crazy but mass power abdication is very unusual elitist behavior.  If I had to guess at what is happening it would be that rats are leaving the sinking ship.  They bled the system for all it was worth and now they sense that SHTF ($hit Hits The Fan) could occur during their next term.  In that case, better to bail out now under "honorable" conditions.  This is not random.  These guys are the Jason Bournes of politics; they don't "do" random.  It reminds me greatly of when I used to frequent the Yahoo stock chat board for Frontline (FRO).  One day a few years back the CEO just decided to up and quit to "spend more time with his family" or some such.  At that time the time was stock was well north of $50 IIRC and I posted on the yahoo chat board for FRO that it was the kiss of death.  You see, FRO had been paying massive dividends with a payout ratio of more than 100% for some time.  In other words, the dividends were being financed or savings were being decimated in order to pay the dividend.  The stock now trades for $3 and change.  Coincidence?  Yeah, right.

Gutting the system before bailing out is what con men do.   When you see them jump out of what appears to be a perfectly good airplane with their golden parachutes strapped on and a bag of cash under each arm you better go check to see what they did to the autopilot.  Check the fuel level while you are at it.  In fact, check everything because something is guaranteed to be fatally wrong with the plane else they would not have bailed out.  If the problem is something that could possibly be fixed, they would stay in it to win it for themselves.  But if there is a near certain chance of catastrophe, expect them to quietly make their way to the exit, carefully avoiding sending out warnings or alarms that others could pick up on to save themselves. 

Its not that they want you to go down with the ship.  The fact is that they are self-serving a$$holes who don't really care if you live or die.  Their lack of desire to give you truthful warning is driven by their concern that if others know there is a problem then the ensuing panic and rush for the exit by "useless eaters" will make it difficult or impossible for them to get away clean.  Of course, they could from the exit door way call back to the people and warn them as a last act before bailing out.  But then it would be clear they had prior knowledge and failed to help the people in whose representation they profited so well for so long.  It profits not a man to get out of the airplane alive only to be hanged for treason when he finally makes it to the ground.