The claim that this is done to make Pennsylvania independent is not true, but what is true is that the event, or rather the things post-event, aren't doing too great. As I said, this was less of a grandiose story attempt to deleted Liberty and more a way for staff to test how much interest there is to do things.
My only critique of it, or rather the lack of any "it", is the fact that the event kind of fell over and died without any real attempt being made to progress what's happened. That, and, well, overall the fact that we still don't have a patch.