Actually, Sesame Street has always been more progressive than the times.
Okay, that I believe we can all agree on, SST has always been a very progressive, and at times somewhat subversive, series - so much so that in 1969, it was actually a big deal for TV audiences to see a cast that was literally half black and half white, in the same setting, as equals. Even Sonia Manzano said that Gordon and Susan seemed glamorous compared to how black people were traditionally depicted on TV back in those days, and at that time, I sure they were.
But, my point is, SST has always reflected the world around us as the decades has passed: when the 70s were all about polyester and mirror balls, you often saw Muppets dresses in leisure suits and dancing to disco (even the humans often wore bellbottoms and wide-collared shirts); 90s saw a lot of subgenres of music that had tropical vibes, and that's when SST reorchestrated its theme song to a calypso beat; and as little mom-and-pop stores began disappearing from the inner city landscape, Hooper's evolved from a little soda shop to a convenience store, and the Fix-It Shop disappeared and was replaced with the Mail-It Shop and later a laundromat. Stuff like this happens in the world all around us, so the show has to be able to make sure the kids watching can identify with the neighborhood and the atmosphere it embodies as the kind of neighborhood they may find in real life.
Where did you get these statistics?
It's just plain and simple observation as I've seen the world and the times change as I grew up over the years. There's no actual scientific research or data to back up my observation, but it's still an observation nonetheless.
I'm not saying you're wrong in claiming age discrimination, because I know it's out there: it's one of the reasons why my mom has never been able to get work these last several years, and it's also the main reason why my dad can't get work as anything other than a truck driver. Reverse age discrimination exists too: I have a friend who just recently turned thirty, and one of her jobs, most of her co-workers are older women, and she often finds herself getting more of the actual work dumped on her because they tell her she needs to help take a load off the older women. So, yeah, you do have a point . . . but so do we, and it seems like you can't and refuse to accept the points we've been making.