Because the west is collapsing as rentier work dominates over true wealth creation!

Would you rather that resources be allocated blindly? The fact that some people can live comfortably off their investments does not mean that the very investments themselves do not create wealth. Hedge funds do the latter, it's up to the government and society to decide on the former - i.e. how to distribute this wealth.

Resources are being allocated into a bubble, because every time the market falls the Fed prints money via QE.

Hedge funds aren't looking for companies doing valuable work, they are trying to figure out if Powell will print more, or gaming Bank of England APIs.

The system is not functioning.

I'm not the OP, but it's a switch I'm strongly considering making. I'm looking at doing it by going back to get a Masters in Quantitative Finance, so that's one possible option.

I worked as a software developer before I got the seismologist position. It was not too difficult to interview for various data science positions.