PixlBit

I'm convinced now. Minecraft has been tweaked behind the scenes to make it harder.

Enemies dodge quicker and actually run after you. I made a video of that once where a skeleton ran down the stairs of my mine to catch up to me. I ambushed him at the bottom of the stairs and made bone meal out of him. Ghasts fire rapidly with pinpoint accuracy as do Blazes. Wither's will literally jump en-mass upon you like they did to me when I entered the Nether Fortress today. They dropped from a hole in the ceiling like they were waiting to ambush me the second I entered the Nether. Fire does more damage quicker, and stamina drops quicker in the Nether as well. Drops are less frequent. I used to get to the fortress, kill a dozen or so Blazes and have all the blaze rod I needed. Now I get hardly a single one from the same amount of kills. I found it almost impossible to make progress today. 

I've pretty much given up on the End City achievements. I haven't been able to even get to The End in weeks. It's just too much of a grind with all these gameplay adjustments. So, Mark and I made a world in creative mode that has the enchantment table and boxes full of XP potions. This is where we will start from now on. You have no gear but you can enchant it the moment you have it. This disables achievements, but I don't care anymore (at least until they add new ones that seem reasonable). 

We played this way a little bit today and it was super fun. I enchanted everything and could mine fast as heck and get more out of every find. I can't wait to attack the Nether next time with fully enchanted gear. That should make those Withers think twice about ambushing me.