Instead of generating association methods directly in the model
class, they are generated in an anonymous module which
is then included in the model class. There is one such module
for each association. The only subtlety is that the
generated_attributes_methods module (from ActiveModel) must
be forced to be included before association methods are created
so that attribute methods will not shadow association methods.

The old method of redefining destroy meant that clearing the HABTM join table would happen as long as the call to destroy succeeded.  Which meant if there was a before_destroy that stopped the instance being destroyed using normal means (returning false, raising ActiveRecord::Rollback) rather than exceptional means the join table would be cleared even though the instance wasn't destroyed.  Doing it in an after_destroy hook avoids this and has the advantage of happening inside the DB transaction too.

Use proper objects to do the work to build the associations (adding methods, callbacks etc) rather than calling a whole bunch of methods with rather long names.