Symptoms of a worn out stylus Benz Glider

I noticed recently that the noise floor (ie the noise level between tracks) had increased substantially, and actually sounds like a grinding noise.

My question is - is this what a worn stylus sounds like? Or, is it more likely to be a symptom of incorrect loading or shift in setup?

Background - this is with a Benz Glider cartridge that came with a used table I bought a couple of years ago. I had assumed this cartridge was a throw away since the seller (a dealer who took it in trade) had no idea how much use it had. To my pleasant surprise, on first play it sounded wonderful. I have put a few hundred hours on it since.

To verify it was the cartridge I swapped the Glider for a Grado Reference Sonata. Quiet again, but of course there's a different loading, gain, and setup. I'm using a Jolida JD9a phono pre which has selectable gain, resistive loading, and capacitive loading. The difference in the noise is noticeable, but the Glider wasn't awful (yet), just enough to notice.

thanks in advance