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Enlistments are not sagging for the active duty forces.

That is true. The "gitsum gitsum" factor is running higher than ever. If my wife hadn't expressly forbid such a consideration, I might be tempted to be one of these late-life recruits.

I mean, think about it. Everyone has different motivations for joining the military - but if your motivation is to "make a difference", it's easier to see a direct path to making a difference when times are "interesting", rather than when times are sleepy. Reserves recruitment suffers because a small (but not insignificant) percentage of those potential recruits are used to seeing it as "safe" duty, where they get to play soldier on the weekends, make a buck, and generally stay out of harm's way. (This is in NO way intended to besmirch the majority who DO serve in the Reserves with the noblest of intentions - but simply to acknowledge that a broader spectrum of people consider the Reserves than consider full-time service.)