Ask-a-Dave's-Gardener: Did my monarda die of old age?, 3 by LAS14

LAS14 wrote:
We\'ve had a luxuriant patch of monarda, probably Jacob Klein, for around 20 years, maybe longer. It spread and didn\'t require weeding and bloomed gloriously. This year it didn\'t even sprout. I know perennials don\'t live forever, but would they all die off at once? Presumably there were plants of all ages there. And no weeds grew in that plot this spring or summer. That\'s weird. I\'ve included one photo from its heyday and 3 from this week.

Any idea what happened?????

tia
las