Smoking in public also became rare, and generally people started smelling better without the need for fragrances.

This has got to be a big part of it in two different ways: smokers wanting to cover their own stink, but also smokers having reduced sense of smell!

It feels mostly regional to me. The vibe I get is that Americans especially don’t really care for fragrances while here in the Middle East it’s a goddamn stereotype of us Lebanese men that we wear too much cologne.

(Or as I have grown up to understand it, just about enough cologne)

I got a pretty bad fragrance allergy a few years ago and would break out in a big rash if I got them near my face. I think things are improving these days, but I was shocked at how much more sharp my sense of smell is now that almost nothing has artificial fragrances (save for deodorant, and some body soap that is like, made from ground up herbs). It's like someone whose senses are enhanced by losing one or more of them.

One of my siblings brought clothes laundered at his university, and the detergent was so cloying that I could taste it in the air, lol. Five years ago, I would barely have noticed it, because there was so much "noise" from the ~18 different scented products we all used on our bodies, clothes, air fresheners and bedding.

Even with fragrance-free stuff, everything still smells good. Just like cloth though, instead of artificial lemon or that blue-flavored dish soap. On the latter one, I've begun to taste it on dishes. I've since switched to fragrance-free dish soap because of that, lol.

I can't remember the last time I used cologne or smelled it on another person.

God, I wish that was me. For whatever reason a bunch of people here (but especially people 50 and up as you noted) wear heavy perfume/cologne. I’ll admit to being moderately smell-sensitive, but sometimes even walking 15 or 20 feet behind them will leave me STILL smelling it!

I find it's very regional inside of the US. It depends on a few factors, but age, prominance, and locality to a "night-life" tends to be the primary ones I find. I live very rural in Southern US, and it's hit or miss if I ever smell a guy with cologne, but when I do it's the guy I know goes out a lot and lives in-town or much older.

I wonder if things have flipped back with the modern crop of teens and young adults, or perhaps my experience is an outlier.

My partner's kids and their friends mostly seem to LOVE cologne and perfume. They use it heavily and daily. I'm somewhat more sensitive to it than most and strong fragrances like that will literally take my breath away as well as make it harder for me to breathe, so it's a thing I notice. Similar experience when going places where the crowd is predominantly in the 16 - 24 age range, it can be a challenge for me.

The folks I know who are older than that range mostly seem to barely or rarely use cologne and perfume. I don't typically even smell fragrances much anymore when I'm out and about (like shopping). At most, it's usually scents that I associate with being from fabric softener on clothes, body washes, hair products, and deodorants.

I do think there's a good chance that your correlation with reduced tobacco smoking might be a thing, but then I smell weed almost as frequently as I used to smell cigarettes when I'm out and about, and I don't even live in a state where it's legal. So, I'd almost expect to smell more cologne and perfume while out and about as folks are trying to cover up the smell of weed.