Elaine Jackson  wrote or quoted:

> From an evolutionary standpoint, how does one explain decrepitude?

The same as senescence?  If so, two of the main theories:

 * Disposable soma

   This states that reproductive and maintenance processes compete for 
   resources. Reproducing early clearly has many advantages - and is 
   consequently somatic tissue maintenance programs do not receive 
   sufficient investment to support indefinite survival.  

 * Antagonistic pleiotropy
 
   This theory proposes that genes that delay the expression of 
   deleterious genes are favoured.  More generally, it suggests that 
   alleles may be favoured if they have beneficial early effects but 
   deleterious later effects.
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