Yes, the ideas behind component systems are that old. (The earliest reference that I recall off-hand is Scott Bilas presentation from GDC 2002: http://scottbilas.com/files/2002/gdc_san_jose/game_objects_s...)
There's plenty of explanation on the Internet.
I didn't mean an example of a game built with it - there are lots of those. :) As you say, it's an old methodology, with Scott being the first one to really spread it around (as far as I could find), so there's a decent amount of proof it's a viable strategy. But aside from specific questions on SO and such, I couldn't find a lot of talk about it in a general, but practical sense. i.e. here's what you do to implement it, here's what a game looks like in it.
And Thief really is a prime example, because it comes with an editor that exposes the component system. That completely covers the "here's what a game looks like in it" angle.
There's also a whole load of info on "data oriented programming", which sort-of follows a similar approach.
Not that it'll help your specific issues, but I figured I leave pointers for anybody else reading about it and being interested.
Edit: Oh, and before I forget it: Search for "functional reactive programming" - that goes down this path a bit further, and it's as the name implies a good match for functional languages.