Intermediate mass stars like our sun don't cool down activity before running out of hydrogen to fuse and collapsing then burning the last little bit of hydrogen around the core before burning that up and expanding into a red giant do they?
It might just be that some secondary activity cycle (the is longer, and cumulative with the regular 28 year solar cycle), and that it is approaching its minimum, and when added on top of the solar cycle's current minimum, we are just in a period of ver low activity.
(and I just bought some baadar solar filter film too, so I can view the sun, but have very little to look at).
It appears that there is more in heaven than current philosophy ever dreamed of. So, if the facts don't fit the hypothesis, the hypothesis must change.