Has your Mac slowed down?

When I purchased this Mac it was fast. However some months on and it is noticeably slower now, and where I notice it most is on starting up an app.

When the Mac was new apps loaded almost instantly - literally, within a second! Now, opening an app such as Affinity Photo takes several seconds. It’s the same for other apps. WHY!?

I am seriously considering posting a bug-report! I have maybe two or three additional programs (not running) and so can’t really see why there’s a slow down.

Also wondering why 4GB of swap was used when almost half the memory is still free.

Screenshot 2020-08-25 at 16.39.101188×200 42.5 KB

For those of you who have Macs, have you noticed any slow down? How long does it take your apps opening?

Edit: Just did a hardware diagnostics check (hold down D on start-up) no faults reported…