Yeah, the saving grace for them is definitely their incestuous relationship with the US Government. But while that can save them from total collapse, it can't prop up their civil aviation activities on its own.
The world may not have a choice but to do so; midsize and large planes were already a duopoly, and both had backlogged orders in the thousands. Airbus can't absorb all these new orders, and there are no other options (not for lack of trying; Japan, Russia and China among others are all having difficulties with their state-backed aircraft development programs; the planes are late, overbudget, and generally poorer quality (e.g. shorter range, less efficient)). Not to mention the huge fleet of perfectly fine Boeing aircraft already operating that still need servicing and maintenance.
