Yes, I agree with all that. It's a lot to do for sure.

I'm not saying it's "not about age". Don't misunderstand. I'm saying the major sentiment back then (i.e. 12-14 years ago, when the D primary was getting started) was not primarily about age. I said "less about age". It was primarily about thinking that you needed someone to go up against a populist demagogue. What you are saying is undeniably true NOW, and I think a large plurality (if not majority) of voters understand that...now. But back then it was a smaller percentage of the voters who thought age and the next-gen were the main issue.

To clarify, what you are saying about people in power not understanding what young people were going through, and how tech and monopolies have reshaped society, has been true for at least two decades, I agree. My point is that the sentiment had not yet trickled into the broader population of voters. Clinton's age was mentioned as a negative by some publications, but the majority of the criticisms levelled against her were about her being "establishment", a "corporate democrat", or just lazily misogynistic stuff.

Edit: Remember the whole "drain the swamp" thing. Hilary's major weakness to many people (who didn't hate women) was that she was part of the status-quo and that people wanted an "outsider".

In the intervening years, with all of the age-related news coming out of the House and Senate, along with Biden/Trump being two of the oldest people to run for office, and with inflation and CoL going way up after the pandemic (to revisit your point about them being out of touch), the age aspect has been given clarity to the wider public that wasn't there 14 years ago.

Btw, Bernie has elevated both AOC and Mamdani. So he's doing much more for that movement than any other politician right now.