Isn't German economy strongly tied to performance of its car manufactures? Them being out competed might started about 3-4 years ago but the impact on other sectors would take some time.
4y ago was also when Russia invaded Ukraine, a lot of Germany’s industry was reliant on cheap gas from Russia. If we include Covid, now Iran war there has been a lot of factors impacting the German economy this decade (same for other countries of course). As someone living there I’m actually surprised things turned out that well so far. The country is still pretty stable