Played this several times, and can't get the Perk Tree to open up more perks after a certain number. Is this a game problem. or am I doing something wrong?

You need to level up your attributes.

No, I only get so many attributes, the rest are locked. I've been playing the game several times. Right now I have 40 perk points I can't use because the tree has locks on whatever I haven't chosen yet.

Have you made sure to unlock all levels of the perks you've selected so far? You can only use branching perks once the central/previous one(s) is/are fully unlocked.

That seems like a rather silly requirement.

They completely reworked the skill system with 2.0.
1. You need a certain amount of Atribute points give to an attribute to unlock higher tiers of the skilltree. Steps 3, 9, 15 and 20 I think.
2. For small perks linked to a larger perk, you need to max that central perk
3. Some perks need to level up 2 branches of the tree.