That's not really a worry. Once you get old enough and assuming you don't reach the very top before they can axe you, odds are very good your bosses will simply let you go.

Another option: Get demoted. Move DOWN the ladder.

In my part of the world, I'm hearing about a lot of people getting what are essentially demotions, even though the terminology being used is typically a lot more rosy than that.

As these companies are doing massive layoffs, they're also restructuring to flatten the organizational charts. Basically direct managers/supervisors are being moved into IC roles (individual contributors aka non-managerial worker bees), directors are having to take on direct management of IC while also sometimes also having to take on a certain percent of the IC work, and so on up the chain.