[EpicEng]

This is exactly what I was going to say. You may not like politics, but it's always going to exist to some degree, and you can't just ignore it while expecting true career growth. If you ever want to become more than someone who simply implements the requirements passed down to them from on high, you need to be effective in working across the organization.

Personally, I wanted to stay technical, but I also wanted to play a meaningful rule in creating and steering the company vision from the product side of things. To do that you need more than technical chops.

That said, if you just want to be a head down coder, that's fine too. Also, none of this means that you shouldn't find a new organization to work for of this one is toxic. Just know that it may not be as bad as you currently think it is, so perhaps this is a growth opportunity.