Why is some grass growing horizontal?

Patches of my lawn have grass that's growing sideways as if someone just trampled on it. These grass are long but mowing the lawn doesn't help because they are lying flat so the mower doesn't cut them. This problem started about the same time I switched from a corded lawn mower to an ego cordless mower but I don't know if there is a correlation or just a coincident. I do notice the cordless mower does not generate as much suction as a gas mower -- the catcher bag does not balloon up as much.
Any idea what caused this and how to fix it? I think these are fine fescue grass should I be growing other types (seattle area)? I've owned this lawn for > 20 years and this is the first time I notice this problem.

In the photo below, you can see the flat area in the center of the photo. At the right bottom 1/3, there is a darker area of grass. They were initially lying down and I straightened them by hand then mowed them.

Some grass are growing flat or lying down and cannot be mowed

 

The easiest solution is to mow the grass before it is tall enough for it to lay over but some types are more prone to laying down. Part of the problem can be the cordless mower. Some use blades intended to maximize battery life but they don't have the "lift" needed to suck grass up that a blade for a gas powered mower might use.

 

Your mower is not powerful enough to cut the lawn as is - some mowers, apparently yours included, are only designed to cut grass which is a little bit longer than the cutting height.