It's a common theme in sharing from long-timers in AA to say something to the effect of, 'I'm been sober for 25 years, but I'm still a sick alcoholic / self-centred in the extreme / full of the page 52 bedevilments etc.'
Self-deprecation is a good strategy, but when it goes too far, it effectively says: 'I'm no better than when I came in. I'm just as sick. The programme doesn't work. God doesn't change us.'
Now, it's certainly true that we don't get perfect; that the ego is still there and can become resurgent; that pruning and sometimes radical work is necessary; but part of the reason I left AA for a couple of years (without drinking) was the impression that basically everyone stays mad, anxious, depressed, dysfunctional, and generally f***ed up, but at least we have someone to go to complain about it.
I have indeed found real solutions in AA to all my problems; my life is radically different than it was at 15 years sober, at 0 years sober, and at -10 years sober; my default position today is to serve rather than grab; the programme works; God is immensely powerful; the credit goes to God; the process was not overnight; I'm recovered not cured; and I need to peddle quite hard to maintain the new condition. But I really do find myself in a new condition. I really have been changed.