That’s not particularly new. I remember a relative having to jump through those hoops in the late 1960s to get a passport. She was in her 40s at the time, so she was able to put together a portfolio and get one, but she never let a passport expire, since she knew it would be more and more difficult to get what she needed as time passed.
Were you baptized as an infant in a church that maintains baptismal records? Any other secondary proofs?
https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/passports/information/secondary-evidence.html
You can renew a passport simply by sending in an updated picture with the expired passport. That’s all you need!