it looks like the golden age of piracy is coming to an end
Not really. Torrents are a better medium anyway. This may very well just strengthen them. But I really, really doubt every site will be closing down. It's just going to be a pain in the ass finding a DDL for the time being.
They're a "better" way to download, but not the best for piracy 100% of the time. IPs are open and many rather than private and secure like HTTP download sites. Torrenting a movie makes it hell of alot easy for your ISP to profile you and send you stern warnings via email to stop (they'll contact the billholder's email). Not all ISP's actually police like that but some do and the threat is of being dealt with via law is real. I've gotten an email just 2 months ago after torrenting like 10 GB of movies, so they are watching.
And yet I download 15GB in a single day of PSP games via HTTP, and apparently I'm safe.
Anyways, although P2P downloading such as torrent is better/more effecient, it always isn't the safest, atleast when piracy is concerned depending on your ISP's policies and how they enforce them.