Levels actually feel more snowbally than Dota at the moment.
It's very common for a laner to have 2 levels over you now just because of 1 bad trade (or death). In one of my games a 1-1-3 Caitlyn had 2 and bit levels over me, accessing her ultimate and basically snowballing from there.
It only takes one good jungler gank, 2 deaths (you don't even need to kill, just be in exp range) and boom, your status is now beyond oppressive.
It was always there. You die early and enemy doesn't go B? He will be 2 levels ahead of you...
Looking at all the pre season changes, the only EXP change was in the Jungle.
From the sound of things, I highly doubt that the kill make up the majority of the EXP difference. My guess is you got zoned out of EXP range of the enemy minions. (Especially if the enemy ADC isn't making use of your absence to increase minion disparity.
You're not crazy. I've been noticing this too since 5.22. I dunno if its a hidden change, but something is very different. Also, the jungle xp changes have made it impossible to catch up if you fall behind in lane xp, since camps barely give non-junglers any xp.
