I've attempted to look up this issue everywhere and it is nowhere to found. I was testing out the spell detect life and telekinesis in Riften with my character today. Everything was working perfectly fine my mana management happened to be decent enough. When I checked my skills I noticed I had an extra-perk point available to me. So, I went ahead and put it into Adept Alteration so the cost of telekinesis and detect life would drop. I had the spells equipped and after I chose the perk they just stopped working. Telekinesis wouldn't pull objects and Detect Life would active the little blue hue over the screen but no NPCs would start to glow. Now they are just useless spells that drain my magicka. I attempted reloading multiple times and that did nothing. I also removed and readded the spells via console and that also did nothing.

Anyone know what the issue might be?

Ok I seem to have confirmed that the Adept Alteration perk specifically disables the Detect Life and Telekinesis spells. Once I removed the perk it did indeed work again. Bumping up to Expert and Master did not bring it back either. Possible new bug?

Noticed this distressing little bug too. Detect Life still turbo levels your Alteration, but it's damn useless now. Definitely the result of the latest patch, as none of my mods screw with those spells.