Since the failed 2000 merger, the previous administrations at US pared it down even more so to United's missing piece. They closed thier BWI hub reducing Washington presence, pretty much closed the redundant PIT hub, parked all fleets that would have been oddball (McDonnell Douglas and Fokker), quickly turned themselves into a formidable Carribbean presence, and grew transatlantic ops, all weak spots in UA's network. Not to mention the physical airline itself, US Airways Inc, is only half the size it was in 2000.
The current administration though, I don't know. They need to watch "Sell This House" or "Flip This House" or one of those shows. You pretty something up when you are trying to sell it or make a deal. Wolf was an expert at this. He arguably changed the airline's image from a monopolistic short haul airline with poor service to a global, high standard, businessman's airline. He made it attractive.
The current US Airways is a moneymaker but is regarded as the Britney Spears of the industry. One hot mess with a continued series of entertaining but sad blunders. Does any other carrier find US to be an attractive partner, or want to be a part of it? The PHX hub is attractive to some carriers (not so much UA IMO), and LAS is really more attractive to a low cost carrier than any of the legacies. Maybe it's the arrogance of this mgmt that they assume they will be running the deal- we saw this with the hostile takeover attempt of Delta.