The hardest part for me is I never find myself to be in a strong enough position at the bubble when I should be able to take advantage of the tight play. And I find that between halfway to the bubble to the bubble, I just can't find situations to double up or build. I might start off like gangbusters, or hit a hand to get into the top 5% say, but from that point to the bubble, I almost never build to a point where I feel strong enough to steal bilnds pre-bubble.
So I can make the money, but after that point I can't see to get to a FT. The last FT i got to in the last two months was a $0.02 SnG on Stars.
You're probably just playing too tight in the mid-late stages of the tournament. It might sound hard/scary to do, but if really want to make it to the final table, you need to find spots to get your money in flip situations or better. That means shoving your AK
hands, shoving your AQ/AJ hands when you're at 20 BBs or less, shoving KQs vs a bunch of limpers, shoving your big pairs when you face a raise and call preflop, etc.
You're looking to get into 50/50's, 60/40's, or even better with 75/25's. Sometimes you're going to get in slightly ahead and you have to fade a suckout. Sometimes, you'll get it in way behind and have to get lucky. There are 2 sayings that I believe are true in MTTs: 1) you have to win flips if you want to win a tournament and 2) if you aren't getting all of your money in behind at some point or another, you're playing too tight.