Do low level characters have a reduced chance to extract high level materials when deconstructing?

Putok

My smithing toon is still only level 3. My highest level character is my sorc, who has been feeding dropped loot to all my other crafters to help them level up their trades (and help reduce inventory clutter). I have yet to get even a single steel bar, despite extracting a good two dozen steel-tier items.

I've noticed that as I've leveled up my second highest level character (a clothier), he's getting mats from deconstruction much more reliably than he did when he was still level 3.

Am I imagining this, or is there some mechanic in place to prevent low level characters from being effective high level crafters?

garrodben_ESO

Appears to be the case. See the discussion below: http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/73221/blacksmithing-deconstruction-problem-with-level-3-character