Wow. At 33 years into my career, I could give the exact same testimony. Earlier this year, partly for the reasons you state and partly because of losing Kaleb (my son last year), I requested to move to an individual contributor role after being a manager. I knew the timing was right, as our plant manager had just moved to another position as well, but the new plant manager and I had a good relationship (along with our HR and other managers), and we had very excellent results for the past few years. We were able to rearrange things very well for me and for my company, and as you state, I just don't have the desire to beat my head on the wall anymore being this close to probably retiring from my first career. Working on solving long term real issues has always been my passion as well, not just working on perception and secondary political nonsense. I chose not to be a manager for many years, although having the opportunity, for this exact reason.
I know of lot of our exuberant fans believe football could be made numero uno at GT, but that ain't happening in the current climate. The new coach better fully understand the obstacles he will face.