Eastern folded up it's tent in January, 1991. Pan Am slipped it's mortal coils December 4th, 1991.
In the same year, the Feds bailed out an auto plant in upstate New York.
The final nail in Pan Am's coffin was the refusal of Delta to loan 25 million dollars, which was slated to erase the remaining Pan Am debt.
A few days later (about 4 to be exact), United got Pan Am's South American routes and Delta bought the New York/Mexico City route for... 25 Million Dollars (which they didn't actually fly for about 4 years).
Oh, the election year question... 1991 was not a major election year in the U.S.A.
PB