This is currently my favorite theory, for lack of a better word. It's also potentially pretty disturbing news. I saw another user mention the term warrant canary. I'd call it a warrant canary for the cautious/well informed. Unless there is some serious action on the horizon, no one well informed will ever use a truecrypt release past 7.2 ever again.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrant_canaryMy very first thought upon hearing this news was that just maybe the trucrypt devs are secretly cheering for others to come and replace the hole they fill in this world. Maybe this is the best possible thing they could do to inspire the next generation of truecrypt. They've laid a good foundation but they know they can't win the war for free information security on their own. So what better good could they do than to inspire the mother of invention; necessity.