You can catch up - it takes some time and knowledge around the game but there is a certain point where you can be capped on all the skills relevant for the ship youre flying (or any other activity). Certain things like flying supercaps (the biggest ships ingame) will take like 1.5 to 2 years to be capped out in the relevant skills.

What I disliked in the long run was that EVE turned into a second job as I got deeper into corporation-related activities.