Based on this behavior there is nothing wrong with your report of your company file. You're seeing the report working as designed, the way it has worked for decades.
Explanation:
When a General Ledger reports is run all earnings details from years before the report end date are represented in the Retained Earnings total on the report. Only earnings based on that end date's fiscal year appear in detail.
This is parallel behavior to the balance sheet, where all earnings in the current fiscal year are represented as current earnings, and those before the current year as Retained Earnings, based on the date of the report.
Solution:
If you want a report that shows all details per account for a period spanning years, create a Custom Transaction Detail report from the Reports menu and total it either by Income Statement or Balance Sheet (depending on the desired detail), but not by Account List your you'll get the same behavior as the General Ledger, which is also totaled by Account List.
