Perfect storm of discontent

A friend recently explained why he retired from a long and rewarding career in medicine and medical education, despite still loving his one-on-one interactions with patients. 

He said he was ‘forced out of the water by a perfect storm of discontent.’  He described the following components:

• Highly motivated, dedicated and skilled professionals with high standards.
• A work setting replete with barriers to excellence and efficiency.
• The inability of individuals to innovate, make contributions to improvement, or even participate meaningfully in governance.
• A leadership culture that valued loyalty to the organization over dedication to the job the organization was actually supposed to do.

I understand completely.