How many designers? Who was removed during the project to work on something else? What was the budget and deadline, and how were they changed during the project? Were the designers professional, full-time designers or someone from another discipline pressed into the task? Were the design elements crafted for the task or adapted from a library? Was the design in-house, through an agency, through multiple agencies?

There is an excellent chance _a_ designer, maybe even _most_ designers, on the project were not happy with just collecting a check.

There is a good chance there was not a single designer who worked on or led the project from its start to its finish.

There is a not-insignificant chance that there were no designers "collecting a check" for the offending design at all.

There are tons of organizational challenges that can lead good designers to make crappy product. What I had in mind was more along the lines of fixed fee development in India and China.

I often arrive at this same conclusion, and I find it depressing. I find it difficult to sum up the feeling beyond "losing faith in humanity".

As others stated, I think you might need to adjust your expectations and think of the big picture. Humanity is amazing, but far from perfect, and will always fall short if you compare it to some imaginary ideal.

Try thinking of it this way:The closest living species to humans practices casual rape, murder, and infanticide. There were closer species, but humans likely hunted and raped them to extinction.

With these humble beginnings, it is amazing that most people can walk down the street safely (and that the street was built at all). More than 7 billion humans now live on this planet and for the most part peacefully coexist. Life expectancy and quality of life has never been higher and violence has never been lower. These metrics continue to improve over time.

Viewed from this perspective, issues of crappy UX seem insignificant.

Hope this helps