I am an old IBMer. I admit I don't know everything there is about all the new technologies (some will survive, some are fads). But I see the young people who hire on and they don't either. They have to learn just like I do. What makes me worth more money? I know how to work in the real world and they don't. They demand too much and perform too little. They don' t know what's important. Even in the cutting-edge areas I see the best performers are 40 and over while the "kids" come and go. So I don't care if you call it a conspiracy or not. Cutting people because they're older is just stupid. And they will learn that eventually, when it's too late.
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I got poached away from IBM in my late fifties by an employer that values experience, expertise and the ability to tackle just about any issue that rocks up. I had noticed that the Millenials who were increasingly replacing older RA'ed employees lacked all these qualities, frequently knew far less about "new" technologies than I did and lacked the confidence to call out a lot of it for what it often is - poorly constructed c-ap.
I was happy to discover that my new employer a) considered my skills to be worth twice what IBM paid me, and b) considers me to be a valuable asset and not a cost item on a spreadsheet. When will IBM learn? They won't (without proper leadership that actually understands business (manipulating the accounts is not the same thing)).