The average age of everyone in the room at Mission Control during Apollo 11 was 28. The managers in the room were outliers (e.g. Gene Kranz was 36), which drew the average up. The median age was younger.
The Manhattan Project was made possible by similarly young grad students.
You can be as crusty as you like, but the reality is that young smart people can be extraordinarily effective under the right conditions.
Flight controllers execute the mission, but they also rely on the engineers who built the things and wrote the procedures. Flight controllers often are young, even today and even in control centres outside SpaceX. The engineers designing and building the systems tend to be a bit older.
The Manhattan Project was made possible by similarly young grad students.
You can be as crusty as you like, but the reality is that young smart people can be extraordinarily effective under the right conditions.