Based on my understanding of tense / aspect, 昔からやっていた should mean that at the time of speaking the action/habit described by the verb should no longer be continuing, whereas with 昔からやっている, the action/habit is still ongoing, e.g. someone has been doing something.
However, I sometimes find examples of 昔からやっていた used to describe actions/habits that are still ongoing.
Here is one example from the web - from a restaurant review:
平戸でおいしい店と聞くと、こちらの店が結構上がってきます。昔からやっていたみたいで、ハンバーグ関係がおいしいと聞きます。
One more example - from a blog presenting an initiative known as 職業体験:
全国的に最近始まった授業のカリキュラムかと思いきや、福井県は昔からやっていたみたいです。
Are you familiar with this usage of ていた to talk about things that are still ongoing? How would you explain it? Is it always linked to a sense of "discovery", that is, something the speaker found out at a later stage - as suggested by 思いきや in the second example?
