is it less turbulence because there is less flow, or has it become more laminar?

And which answer would be more desirable? I'm not even sure I know.

I do feel like I've made a lot of progress, though I can't identify how. [...] Hopefully you'll do better at guiding your development than I've been at riding along with mine.

Yeah, I too have had that feeling. I've lost some of the turbulence I had in my early twenties. I don't know how. I think about it in the hopes of trying to duplicate it (continue it) deliberately. So far, I'm still just riding along, although spending a bit of energy cataloguing the scenery!