Many on AN have lost what it was that enabled them to keep pace.
The alleged turn towards "conservatism", as one gets older, is the polite way of saying that you are losing your intellectual flexibility, your faculty to learn/absorb new ideas and your previous ability to develop........to evolve.
That turn is not a "choice", just as one does not choose to become less physically flexible and mobile as one ages........Dr Robert Sapolsky as good as calls it neural deterioration.
To most younger people, and some on AN, everything around them is normal and they work with it.
They still have to "strive", but they are not lost........as you are.