Where are the older people in the crew?

But prior to that Chakotay quit Starfleet, it (and the Federation) didn't measure up to his standards.

It was similar with Hudsn, Eddington, Tom Riker and others who left Starfleet behind to follow their personal conscious.

 

^ Well, to be fair, with most of those guys it wasn't a problem with Starfleet as such - just that the Maquis situation was too important to them. If there had never been a Maquis there's no indication they would have quit Starfleet.

Although Eddington was such an egotistical jackass, he would probably have got kicked out eventually, if he hadn't left.

 

More like promoted to Admiral.

 

Why would men and women pushing into their ages be in the lower decks? The most rational and logical explanation is that the elder members of Starfleet are all Commodores and Admirals commanding fleets and star bases. I wouldn't expect to find someone in their 80s to be part of the crew of a ship in deep space.

 

Because the odds of becoming a ship captain are somewhat low.

90 percent of upper tier guys likely never see the captains chair.

Although I think its likely there are many people with the rank of captain not serving on ships.

Captain sisqo being a prime example.

But its likely many many more settle down on planets, and take up working on terraforming projects, shipbuilding, research assignments etc.

If you know many people who actually live on ships, you quickly understand its not a long term place to live.

 

Obviously not every Starfleet officer will command a vessel, much less commanding one like the Enterprise, going into deep space. But that doesn't mean commanders hit a glass ceiling and stop moving up. They get posted to starbases, or impulse patrol vessels, or outposts, or small time science vessels, or shore installations. That's probably how most careers go.

 

I donno there seems to be a string of characters that spend much longer at lcmdr rank than anything else.

 

Need to consider when they entered Starfleet in the first place.

Instead of one day leaving Starfleet to pursue a second career in the civilian world, Starfleet itself might be their second (or third?) career. A healthy individual in their forties of fifties, with a valued skill, could seek to enter Starfleet.

Kids are grown, why not.

Not every officer would aspire to that position either, it's just not on their personal agenda.