It is possible that the wood you are using is fairly new growth and not old. Also maybe too dry? Too wet? I can imagine your frustration with 50 years of experience and all of a sudden smoking went south.
When I smoke I get mostly ash and on occasion just charcoal is left. Initial smoke can be a little heavy for a minute or so but then settles down to a whispy sort of smoke. Pretty lite, close to the thin blue smoke. What I have read on some other forums is to prevent this wrap the chunks in foil and leave just the top of the chunk exposed. This prevents combustion/flames and produces a lighter smoke. I have not tried that myself as I am OK with the food I smoke.
I have read that some folks with pellet smokers don't get the good smoke that a traditional stick burner produces. I don't know about that as I don't have one. What I will say is that where there is a good flame, there will be little smoke as the byproducts of combustion are burned up. When there is no flame, you have smoldering and a lot os smoke until you have nothing left but glowing coals.
I strip off any bark that is on my chunks before they go into the smoker; bark should not matter but I don't like it. I try to select chunks with a very tight, dense grain, where the cuts look more solid with little of the individual cells exposed. I found the denser the wood, the lighter the smoke.
I apologize for the sermon and pray you are not offended. Below is a link which you may or may not have seen before. Neither case, I hope it helps you and maybe some other people.
David
https://amazingribs.com/more-t...e-of-wood-and-smoke/