Yes it appears that things have changed in the game to make it harder to level up.
Also the number of battles compared to one month ago is about 60%. I find I play against oponents that are 500-700 points below me most of the time and thus get +10 rating on a win and -36 on a loss. Most are playing level 1-2 cards in Silver 1. I think most are bots.
Struggling to get into Gold 3 where maybe the payouts will be higher. But it sounds like there might be an extremely large group in gold also. Payouts dropped by 50% with the new change to rewards pools in Silver.
!CTP