Where does song writing ability go as we age?

I think it's simply the fact that there is really only so much great material one can create.
Look at McCartney. Someone with such great songwriting skills - he wrote a ton of stuff.
But really how many great tunes can come out of one brain?
 
I've thought about this before. I think it's a combination of what everyone has said and this....
If you're a talented enough song writer when you're old, you probably had the same musical abilities when your were 20. So they end up getting discovered when they are young and end up writing the best songs they have in them right off the bat. After that they end up with a paradox: Write the same types of songs over and over and have people get bored, or diversify styles and have fans wishing for more of the 'old stuff'.
 
Most songs are tidbits that the musicians had played around with, tweaked and developed for years. Only so many you can come up with I suppose?
 
Creativity is not dependent on a narrow span of time in someones life, but rather the sum total of their experiences. It does take thousands of hours of practice to become competent on your instrument, but to string the correct three or four chords together in the right order, tempo, and groove along with the right words and vocal performance to create a hit and/or memorable song can be a matter of chance or some would say luck. That is why recording your everyday doodling and practice can be beneficial when you rip that sweet little passage and wonder exactly what it was that you did. Go back and listen it's probably something you do all the time but is just different enough to make all the difference.
 
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