I've come to the conclusion that ALPA is an organization with enormous potential... and enormous flaws.
With regard to those who strive to work in the various union capacities, some are attracted to union work because they truly do care about the people they work with. Some are attracted to union work because they only care about themselves and wish to 'redistribute' portions of the collective value of bargaining efforts for their own personal agendas. Others are attracted to union work because their ego pushes them to be seen as more important in the grand scheme of things... than they really are. Still others enjoy the life of full time flight-pay loss so that they can have the rewards of being an airline pilot, without all of the bothersome overnights and early duty-ins.
What ALPA desperately needs, and sorely lacks, is some sort of introspective capability to truly determine if the will of the pilot group, and not the politics of the moment, is being carried out. Whether this is an inspector general, a board of directors, a KGB/NSA type of entity, or a combination of all three, an assessment carried out by a body other than the local leadership is both required, and absent.
Whether the union is metaphorically more of a mirror, or a motivator, of each individual pilot group is probably a subjective determination.