Yeah it was fucking uncanny. Everything post 2014 felt like a autistic sprint to the finish, while the 2000's felt like a slow burn.
Honestly, while I think it's part of due to just getting older, I also think this is part of too.
The late 2000's/ early 2010's saw the end of the "Wild West" era of the Internet, and whether you think that was for better or for worse, it was something to watch unfold. But after that, everything just gradually...slowed down. Nothing really happened under Obama after his first 2-3 years in office, and Trump was either cock-blocked from every sweeping change he tried to make or just ended up giving up and complaining on Twitter. I think "complaining" is probably the best word to describe the middle-latter half of the decade, because boy do I remember a lot of complaining going on post 2013/2014, but nothing really changed because of it. It was all talk and no action, and that doesn't exactly kick-start huge events that'd leave anything memorable...outside of the 2016 election of course.
Also, I swear every content creator got lazy in the second half of the decade. I noticed all the franchises and major content creator's I used to love just...slowed the hell down on making stuff around 2013/2014 for some reason, and the ones that didn't just sort of...went to shit. Part of me thinks it due to things like social media, lets plays, and streaming, which I believe many content creators (particularly Internet ones) put too much time into because it's quick and easy money, but it's content that doesn't really stick with people (basically popcorn entertainment). The other part I think is due to society, as a whole, has just become...less encouraging of creativity. You can't do anything risky or edgy without someone getting pissed off and trying to rake you over the coals for it, and anyone who tries to toe the line to a "T" to not piss people off ends up making something so bland and uninspired it ends up flopping. There's a bit more to it then that, but that's the long and short of it from the entertainment end.
It's kinda hard to put into words, but the best way to describe it I guess was that the early 2010's was the end of a cultural renaissance with the Internet and the rest of the decade was everyone just pandering around in a particularly dull-ass status quo.
