I feel your pain.
I was doing the same synths after the patch that were EASY and did not fail commonly that after, were insanely hard to do.
Careful synthesis is almost a waste of time because the gain in quality even if you succeed is almost matched by the durability loss. (at least all of the synths I was doing)

Synth'ing in Higher levels may be easier, I dunno. But Low level stuff feels really difficult now, even with a Primary smithing tool that is the same level as I am and gear that gives smithing bonuses.