The STD gauge are not good , even at 100deg C the gauge is still around in the middle of the min and max. You say that yout hink the guage is running a little lower than normal.
If you say the car has got less econimical , I would say it maybe another problem , these 350,s run very little cold start fuel , so even of the car is running around 50deg C I cant see this making that much difference.
Has it thrown any CEL,s up? it could be a O2 sensor starting to fail , this can cause the part throttle AFR to go rich.
But got to agree with the boys on here if the coolant is low the heater will be blowing colder , doesnt the car get warmer of you leave it standing running?