No Dozy, your wrong. Read the report. The threads were becoming more and more stripped. So when the pilots trimmed for an altitude, it would hold, then give...then they needed to retrim for the next place that held...this went on and on and on, until such time trim wouldn't cover the problem, then slop in the tail became so great and where it would hold at a weakened thread, then give, then hold, then give, until there wasn't any threads in which to hold, thus loosing control. So ponder this as the pilots, Alaska's finest, top notch guys, hired from the top of resume pile, went through all the checklists (ooos no tail control failure)...SOPS(ooops no jack screw failure)..Dispatch (gosh we don't know...just keep flying to LA) and lastly the pilots yanking back and forth on the yoke trying to keep the plan upright, flip it over into the ocean. You can call this mechanical failure but it's actually top down from the Chief Pilot and HR, people I have met. If you hire mechanics that don't do inspections and robots that can't make a decision these problems will happen from time to time. Another great example of CRM at work by the way.