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By Bernie Rabik| Special to The Times

Phil Mickelson just won the PGAChampionship at age 50. Tom Brady won the Super Bowl at 43. Serena Williams is a top tennis star at 39. Joe Biden entered the presidency at 78. Bob Dylan released an excellent album at 79. US Sen.Mitch McConnell, Republican minority leader, is 79. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, is 82. Pope Francis is 84.

America is showing its age. Somewhere along the way, a once-new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal (not men and women; that came later) became a wheezy gerontocracy. Our leaders, our electorate, and our hallowed system government itself are extremely old.

Let me stipulate at the outset that I harbor no prejudice toward the elderly. As a septuagenarian myself, Im fully mindful of the scourge of ageism.

Why should we care how old our leaders are? It is widely accepted that cognitive functioning declines dramatically on average after age 70, and the types of intelligence which decline most sharply on average are the capacity to absorb large amounts of new information and data in a short time span and apply it to solve problems in unaccustomed fashion.

None of this means a septuagenarian cant function effectively as a political leader. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell are 82 and 79, respectively, and by all reports, they are operating at peak mental capacity. But to affirm that not all elderly people are impaired cognitively is very different from affirming that none is.

Even the healthy older brain is, well, different from the healthy younger brain; and, if you care about politics, thats worth making some effort to understand. Certain tasks are just harder as you get older, even if youre very smart. Your mental reflexes are slower. It takes longer to remember someones name. Multitasking is more challenging. Learning foreign languages is more difficult, and adjusting to unfamiliar cultures is perhaps a bit harder. You can overcome these obstacles if you make some effort, but not everybody, not even all American leaders, makes the effort.

The most important compensating benefit to old age is wisdom, which comes from experience. When youre making decisions that affect others, its much better to have a deep well of experience to draw on than to maintain the mental reflexes of an auctioneer. Wisdom may be more valuable in the digital age than ever before, because the velocity of information and normative judgments on social media, cable news, and elsewhere constantly threaten to make glib idiots of us all.

But heres the rub: The aging of Americans ruling class doesnt automatically increase its experience level. In presidential politics, notes Brookings Institution senior fellow Jonathon Rauch, political experience, which used to be a selling point, has become a liability. Voters and the public have come to see experience as inauthenticity.

In a November 2015Atlantic article, Rauch plotted the experience level for presidential candidates from 1960 to 2012. His graph showed a clear increase in the experience level among the losers and a corresponding decrease among the winners. Gerald Ford lost to Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush won with more political experience than Michael Dukakis, but four years later lost to Bill Clinton, who had less. John McCain lost to Barack Obama, whod been in national politics a mere four years.

Donald Trump entered the Oval Office with no political experience at all. The single greatest mental compensation which age provides was therefore unavailable to the oldest president in American history.

To be sure, you know that aging will likely cause wrinkles and gray hair. An individuals observation of old age is not flattering, but Winston Churchill refused to acknowledge that. In 1954, the English artist Graham Sutherland was commissioned to paint a full-length portrait of Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. Finding the depiction deeply unflattering, Churchill disliked the portrait intensely. Sutherland stated to Churchill that old age is never kind to anyone growing old.

Churchill complained that the portrait made him look like a down-and-out drunk who has been picked out of the gutter. Sutherland maintained that he painted the prime minister as he truly saw him.

But in many cases, the flip side of physical longevity is cognitive decline. People may be living longer and heathier lives, but we havent figured out how to include brain health in that equation.

Once I am ready, I hope that my dear ones will help me depart with dignity, prevent me from being a burden to others, surround me with music, Mozart and Bethoven preferably, and celebrate the end of my life with a smile, recalling the abundant good memories we shared. Ultimately, how I get through this will be my faith.

Mark Twain was right in writing: Age is an issue of mind over matter.

Bernard J. Rabik, a Hopewell Township attorney, is an opinion columnist for The Times.

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Bernie Rabik: Is Age Only a Number? - The Times