The more I watch this the more I realize that this was the movie Scorsese wanted to make when he did Casino.

In Casino he gives Ace Rothstein a somewhat positive ending. Mean Streets, Goodfellas, and Casino didn't really go into the aftermath of the lead characters. They end just as the party's over. They don't go into the loneliness and despair. Raging Bull sort of does but it's also not necessarily a mob movie. And as far as we can see, "Tommy Como" or any of his associates go on to business as usual, perhaps die peaceful deaths off screen.

The Irishman was the first gangster film Scorsese really got to make where he had an hour to deep dive into the sad decay of a former wiseguy, where all their friends are dead and their families won't have anything to do with them because of their past.

I wonder if Scorsese didn't bother using a stunt double in these scenes where DeNiro physically looks old for this very reason. Even though he's portraying a young man in some of these scenes, his old posture foreshadows his meek status in life at the end of the film.