My man keeps criticizing me lately

Seems to be the season for love problems. Another friend told me that her honey keeps criticizing her. Now, it's not as if these two just met yesterday and hooked up today. They've been together for a long time, but lately, he's been critical. Too critical.

My radar started humming immediately. I suspect something is up with a guy. You can't be with a guy for a long time and not notice he's critical. A person is either brimming with criticisms right from the start or something triggered it. In my friend's case, it was a recent development. I suspect a third-party, but I'm playing it by the ear in the meantime. I can't very well just scream, "He's cheating on you, the sneak!"

But since the guy wasn't really the comparin', contrastin', and most especially criticizin' sort, where is it coming from? And who is my friend getting compared and contrasted to? A mystery. I hope I'm wrong.