the problem is you can’t easily go get another job because all the other jobs require a stupid amount of qualifications that don’t really relate to what they are offering in anyway shape or form.
Job postings are a wishlist for an ideal candidate. Only some of the stuff is actually required, For the rest, it varies based on how scarce people able and willing to work in that field are.
To see through the fog, you have to try reaching out. Either apply at places or try to build yourself a network. Sadly I’m not great at it myself. Alternatively, if you have the time and inclination to learn new skills, that’s a thing you can do.
Yeah, firefighter mentalities are terrible.
That said, as someone in software development, wouldn’t there be some optimization work you could do? Keeping up with the technology? Preparing training material? Figuring out the next steps for the next improvements to be done to the system? Looking at solutions to better monitor what is going on? Scripts to automate tasks?
I find it hard to believe that things are so static.