How hard is it to do SEO for businesses today?

Hey folks, I stopped working as a Team Lead SEO in 2021 and changed my career to become a developer instead, as I got bored by all the politics coming with that position. However, I still check in here and there with the SEO world as I have some websites running, and they generate some side income with Ads, link insertions, guest posts, and affiliate programs. I feel like it becomes harder nowadays, especially for anyone who works for businesses (small niche projects seem to do well still), with Google seeming to worsen their SERPs with every algorithm and users increasingly answering their queries with ChatGPT and alike instead of using good old Google. Or do I feel like that because I left the SEO bubble? As long as I worked as an SEO there have always been people saying "SEO is dead" or "Google now f'd up truly". :D