My last manager quit because of that feeling of helplessness. Basically my manager left his manager.

Can relate to this.

I worked as CTO for a startup, even as CTO I couldn't do anything to help the team, and I had to focus on writing more code than managing. The CEO always had the last word. In the end, I told him that I just want to be a software developer and you can come to me when you're in trouble. The big perk, no more long hours... The bad, I no longer feel any ownership for what I do.

Can relate too. I'm going through this right now and it kills me. I'm not a real manager but I have a number of devs I oversee in some aspects and it's obvious to me some are underused, undervalued, or underchallenged. The problem might be that as a lead I empathize /too much/, but it drives me crazy that in the end I'm just a proxy for communication with very little power for change. I feel like I'm always making up excuses for the company's decisions and that's not good either.

You might find this book interesting: https://www.amazon.com/Seeing-Systems-Unlocking-Mysteries-Or.... It's a great view into the differing perspectives of executives, middle managers, and ICs.

I bet not all of your peers feel the same way. Some managers are better at playing politics than others and get more resources for their directs.

But I've given up on ever getting a decent raise from a company. I've been prepared to switch companies every two years.