It's fun reading and pondering these ideas.
I've thought that consciousness might be defined as that shift you describe. The change itself, which, of course, is constant. I find it impossible to know for sure because, technically, it's impossible that I remember the previous moment the way it actually occurred. It's always a new observation.
Then I think about dying. I believe I'll transform just like I always do, and that consciousness will have ‘less persona’ or more, as if our consciousness is a never-ending story wherein the sentences are constantly shuffled.