It sounds like we are seeing work become sport, with all the positives and negatives sport has. Maybe seeing it as ageism isn't helpful. Ageism doesn't exist in sport because the abilities you need can and do decline with age. I wonder for all the talk about "I'm just as good" if people really are; it's honestly ridiculous to assume a forty year old is as elastic or is possessed of the resiliency or endurance to keep reinventing their entire knowledge set every few years.