Clutch Pedal/linkage problems of the 1999 Nissan Sentra

I was driving at night, when I noticed that my clutch had a little more "play" in the pedal than normal. I thought this was my imagination until within another 15 minutes of driving I noticed that the gears started shifting harder than normal as well. Within another few minutes, the clutch pedal was almost all the way in, and the clutch was not releasing causing me not to be able to shift at all. I was able to pull off to the side of the road, and get the car into second gear and drive the remainder of the way home without incident. Once home with the car, I inspected the clutch pedal and the clutch cable under the hood and noticed that the piece the clutch cable attaches to (the withdrawal lever) was cracked and almost completely broken in half. The car was then towed to my mechanic who informed me that after adjusting the clutch system and test driving it, he had the same problem I observed, and almost couldn't get the car back to his shop from the test drive. He informed me that the entire clutch assembly would need to be replaced as it had obviously failed, as well as the defective withdrawal lever. He found no obvious reason for the failure of the clutch and lever, other than manufacturer defect. He did not feel that the failure was the result of normal wear and tear or abuse.