I was better at unpracticed memorization and recall when I was younger. Some decades later, I feel worse at that but better at identifying implicit patterns and

I was better at unpracticed memorization and recall when I was younger. Some decades later, I feel worse at that but better at identifying implicit patterns and synthesizing novel insight across domains. So no, I wouldn’t say I’ve found learning more difficult. I just recognize there are different things to learn. My suggestion would be to reassess what you think “learning” means, because you’re probably already doing a better job of it than you’re giving yourself credit for. It sounds like you want to learn explicit material like a student might. That’s fine, but at some point I would imagine your head will get a bit overcrowded with disjoint, received details. If you’ve emphasized that sort of learning in the past, you might just be sort of topped up and need to change gears to a more sophisticated kind of learning.