To answer the initial question:

• there seems to be a lot move visibly poverty; people wearing poorer clothing and eating cheaper food even in middle class areas, but that was an effect of the Great Recession

• the demographics seems to have really changed; there are far more Middle Easterners and the vast majority are Muslims. There are more blacks in certain areas as well. You can spend a lot of time in the UK without seeing Indians that aren’t Pakistani/Bangladeshi. You seem to get more visible racism as well - I remember seeing a couple of incidents involving racism against Blacks which I would have never have seen twenty years ago.

• infrastructure seems to be on the decline quite badly. I was surprised at how bad things were even in London with public transport and the like. It seems that the police are very overstretched but the Labour governments don’t want to enforce the law (because many of the criminals are either poor or ethnic minority) and the Tory governments are unwilling to look politically incorrect and/or are corrupt.

I wouldn’t move to the UK for career growth as that’s only really feasible these days in the US. Australia tends to have the philosophy of “work to live” and many people don’t chase jobs as they do in the US.

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Moving ‘back’ is difficult.

I’m a fellow Brit who’s very close in age to you, and also moved away at a similar age to you (I travelled and lived in multiple countries). I relocated my base back to the U.K. due to the pandemic, though I’ve continued to go abroad for a few months at a time each year.

If you see career opportunities here, then that’s great. I personally am mostly still here because of my partner (who ironically isn’t British, but is based here for work right now) and supporting my family with some things. But I would prefer to live elsewhere.

The biggest change I’ve seen in the time I was away is the cost of living - the relative cost of food, transport, etc, seems much higher compared to the minimum and average salaries. Moreover, having lived overseas, it’s really easy to be hyper-aware of whichever things you personally like LESS about your home country.

I’ve been discussing it with my friends who have also lived abroad and returned home. And with my partner who it’s keen to go back to his own home country (but will have to, at least for a while). Initially, it’s exciting to be back and enjoy things you missed. But after a while the reverse culture shock is isolating.

The other thing which I think many people struggle to adapt to moving to the U.K. from elsewhere is the short daylight hours this time of year. If you’ve been in one of the sunnier parts of Oz (like Brisbane or north of there), then I think you might not enjoy getting used to 6 months of relative darkness again.

The UK is full of people coming back when they realise the grass just isn’t greener or when they want to educate their children. The UK is crammed at the seams full of people who realise that at least local governments are not as corrupt as they are everywhere else, that crime isn’t as bad and that if you get off your arse and actually work ( rather than claim benefits and moan all the time ) you can achieve. But you do have to have spirit, a work ethic and stop buying into the ’ someone else will save me ’ culture.