Anyway, if anyone has any thoughts or can offer any advice as to what has happened to me, or why things suddenly seem to be going badly when they have been going so well, then I am listening!
I always tell people just starting to learn that they will progress rapidly at first, then plateau, then feel as if they are making negative progress.. When, not if, that happens they should talk to someone more experienced, who will then say something to the effect "yup, I remember that stage".
BTW, this kind of thing doesn't stop once you're solo, nor bronze, nor silver. The only difference is that experienced pilots have more expensive mistakes