Something about this thread makes me think 'stubborn', 'set in their way', 'always right', 'driving at 80kph on the highway', 'never had an accident' ...
Then I get another set of words/phrases coming to me, 'invincible', 'bullet proof', 'source of all knowledge' ...
and to end it off I get 'mature' and 'less mature'.
I suppose someone could find some statistics to associate the above with differing ages and someone else could probably associate them in a different way.
Like it or not along with the freedoms 'demanded', oops, I mean associated, with less regulation comes greater self critique and a greater reliance on self education. I think that the aging of the RAA fleet, the increase in performance and the increase in skills to safely manage those risks is starting to bite.
Being older and wiser in some areas doesn't mean I'm guaranteed a job at Cape Canaveral.
There's a few reasons why the average age of recreational pilots is tending towards the older person and subsequently why they are represented in greater numbers in incidents. I'm not convinced that it's just due to an over representation of older pilots. I think that attitude ( or HF whatever the latest TLA is ) has a noticeable impact as well.
For the record, I'm 53 and have been granted a license to learn to fly since '96 and am progressing pretty well on the stubborn lessons ;)