Last time I flew in the US was back in April, and I still had to do all of those things you mentioned. Not sure how you got a free pass

I’ve been doing that for years via Pre-Check.

TSA changes up what they do each day. I just got back from a trip myself. On the way there, they didn't scan boarding passes. On the way back, they did. The guy even said they change things up to keep "the baddies" on their toes. Sometimes you don't take off your shoes, sometimes you do.
Pre-check helps tremendously to make that the norm. No need to unpack electronics, no shoes off. Only thing they still do occasionally is the full body scan when randomly selected.

I travel for a living, was even delivering weed through TSA around covid times. It's gotten better, but it just varies, I kept a toothpaste in my bag for three trips, on the fourth trip it was too big to go through.

Some airports have fancy scanners that don't require removing anything. For everything else, maybe you were marked for precheck or similar? Its only a trend when your return trip is the same.

For those asking it was a domestic flight (USA if that wasn't clear). Easiest boarding I've had in decades.

??? Where did you fly? I flew just a few weeks ago on a domestic US flight and still had to do all those things.

Edit: There have been a couple of times many years ago where they let us keep our shoes and coats on before using the body scanner, but those seemed to be rare events. I think one of them was because they had special dogs out sniffing everyone in addition.

Hm. Where you at? Was it a domestic flight?

Those fancy CT machines they're upgrading to can dissect everything in your bags. I hated taking my electronics out, glad it's a thing of the past on most airports.