I think it’s that some older people tend to be overconfident and think they’ve figured out everything in life (not that this behaviour is exclusive to old people but the older you’re the more likely you’re to think that you know shit). Another factor might be that over time you’re more likely to confirm to your surrounding, being too tired and old to “rebel”.

Just stay curious, open minded and always willing to learn and do new things.

I’ve noticed that most of the professors I liked in college were the ones to admit when they’re wrong, understand that not everyone learn the same and willing to accept nonconventional answers in exams, not use the same material from a decade ago, etc. it might be trivial facts but it shows that on the larger scale this person is still evolving and adapting to their surrounding not being stuck in some old mentality.

I also believe that while age has a role in this it’s not actually about age but rather the mentality the person has and whether they can see the big picture or not. I think the fact that OP has noticed it and didn’t want to become like this is an indication that their mentality is moving in the right direction.

PS: English isn’t my first language and I’m kinda tired while writing this so please forgive me.

We do that in Arabic too. It’s called “badal”, a figure of speech where you replace “the whole” with “the part” to emphasize that part’s importance in the context; in this case that would be either where the government is located in the country or where the report originated from.

For example when Arabic news agencies want to refer to the USA’s government they say Washington or the white house. Since that’s usually where the news come from.