When you are in an impossible, systemic problem, it's hard to not get dispirited.

One way to cope is to pretend you can't see it, to put on blinders and heroically tilt yourself at windmills.

Another bad way to cope is to give up.

But there's another approach: see if you can hold the problem at arm's length, to see it as an intellectual puzzle.

If you focus on it "it's such a deep bummer this is such a systemic problem, it should be different" then it will crush you.

But if you let go of the moral "this should be different" and instead grapple with "like it or not, this is what it is. What am I going to do about it? How am I going to play with this particular puzzle?" you can often find judo moves.

Everything is hard for mundane reasons: for systemic reasons.

Once you see that, it's easy to give up. But if you can get excited about the intellectual potential you can bootstrap.