One piece of the puzzle the Rocky Mountain News failed to include was the gross overscheduling of the airline during the summer of 2000. My friend was a 737 "Classic" Capt. at that time and he would frequently call and remark about the delays due to aircraft shortages.
Management forgot to schedule adequate down time for maintenance and built a schedule that relied on the pilots flying over 80 hours. The summer spiraled downward--aircraft wore out and bigger things broke and the pilots got tired of being called on their days off and extended.
What's Goodwin got to say for himself? "Waiter, another round of Margaritas, por favor!"
TC