7 YEARS .. that is AWESOME! Congrats!
I've only got 7 and half months, though I feel great, I can't answer the question here because of the time I have in and also I don't do it alone. I have a therapist and I participate in group therapy along with other support systems I have built up.
I bet you see a lot of the older generation just quitting and staying quit because of the times and less opportunity, don't forget that way back then there were also better family values and the times were just very different. I'm willing to bet even that that generation produced a lot of still continuing functioning alcoholics too.
Some who do it also might have some sort of support system in place, ? I don't know it's a good question though.