Shortage
I am not aware that there have been any changes to the OGP requirements recently. Certainly up here in the north I am aware that operators are getting lots of applications when they recruit (hundreds), but the pile of applicants is not yielding more than a few suitable candidates. Not sure if there is a common reason though.
Not sure about the "freshmen" thing either - hours are accumulated so quickly flying offshore that even if you decided to take in the lowest of the low timers, they would progress in 4-5 years anyway, so you'd have to keep tuning them over and i don't see that happening at any of the operators.