There are several possibilities for losing hypo awareness:
First is that by consistently maintaining lowish blood sugars and/or having frequent hypos, the body becomes used to low levels and the hypo symptoms are less obvious. The frequent hypo situation is extra dangerous because the liver is not getting enough time to recharge its stores of glycogen, so in an emergency there's nothing there to get out of a really bad hypo. The symptoms can sometimes be regained by running blood sugars at a higher level for a couple of weeks - the body readjusts to the higher levels, and symptoms return when levels drop, as normal. This situation can occur at any stage post diagnosis.
The second situation is less optimistic, and tends to occur in longer term diabetics who maybe haven't had the best control over the years. The high levels of blood glucose over time can lead to autonomic neuropathy, one of the classic complications one symptom of which is hypo unawareness. It's potentially more serious, because there's not much you can do about it, that is until some clever person finds a way to reverse nerve damage. This is what I have, and it's no fun at all.
Some insulins make different people react in different ways, and just by changing the type hypo symptoms may return. I have noticed a slight change in awareness since switching from NovoRapid to Apidra a few weeks ago, one of the reasons I wanted to try.