It appears I may have inadvertently set a preference somewhere that is causing new windows to open behind rather than in front of existing windows on the screen. My problem is, I have no idea what preference setting I changed or how to set it back so that new windows have the focus when they open. Any ideas or suggestion? 😵‍💫

I don't recall ever having seen a general pref that covers all instances of new windows, although I have seen the front/back option in (at least) Mail.

Have you looked through TinkerTool/TTSystem to see if either one offers the option?

Found the cure. A reboot was all it took but I am embarrassed after all of my recent pontification about forgetting old fixes. Hopefully I will learn to practice what i preach.

Glad the reboot fixed the problem. I have observed that in general the front/back window option is app specific. I have seen it in Mail, Safari and Music, for example.

This one was across the board. Every new window from every application opened behind any and all other open Windows. 🤷‍♂️ What was even more annoying is how long it took me to start using Mission Control to access the hidden windows. It may be the first time I had ever used Mission Control other that to know what it is. I lose what I don't use.