As a Controller I have accepted I've been in the "age & experience" rather than "youth & reaction" bracket for a while...
Looking back on how I used to control (and I'm not sure this is purely experience taking charge)... nowadays I tend to take safer options and take fewer risks? Less haste... more speed (as my old maths teacher used to say) Whether this is sub-conscious reaction to experience, or a more deliberate compensation for lack of reaction... I'm afraid I don't know?
But, to tell you the truth I don't think it makes much difference ... when push comes to shove I think I can wheel and deal as well as I did twenty years ago (NOT the dillusion of middle-age)... in fact I would say I can handle the same rate of traffic, but am probably SAFER when doing it.
Maybe all this proves is that late, late 40's is not over the edge... but what I will say is that I KNOW I don't want to be doing this in 10yrs time... and that's definitely EXPERIENCE speaking.