Perhaps. I thought so once in exactly this situation, and it led to an incredible amount of frustration, and burnout. And others were hurt the same way. That leadership vacuum was very real, but nobody wanted it to be filled by anyone already in the company, it turned out.
Eventually we got a very competent new team lead from outside and he was accepted by everyone immediately. For one of the teams anyway; the other one is still a complete mess. I just make sure I'm on the right one.
If you don't want to become a leader, what do you do in a disorganized mob situation? Leave?
If you have to stay, it helps to try and make your team a nice place to be. I remember a manager that would organize team lunches and would give Fridays off (unofficially) making the team an oasis in the middle of a corporate desert. But I can’t imagine it was easy for him to deal with a dysfunctional leadership and coworkers…
So either you become your island and power on from your base, or you become part of the dysfunction as a leader. Leaders who succeed in this are rare enough they write books about it, most of it fiction..
They asked what can you do besides leaving.
Should just leave.
My manager doesn't know anything about the code, my project, or the release project.
IOW, your team has no leadership and no management. Your team lead may be called that, but sounds like he doesn't lead at all. Your manager may be called that, but he doesn't manage either. This happens a lot when people are given responsibility without any authority (probably the case for you "team lead"), or authority over things they don't understand (probably the case for your "manager").
The bad news is that you're part of a disorganized mob. The good news is that there is a leadership vacuum that, if you play your cards right, you could fill. If you want. Of course, even if you succeed, it's possible no one will care about your accomplishments. And you will probably make enemies. It's possible you'll be rewarded but given your description, I view that as unlikely.
As a side note, suggesting to the team lead that he lead and do X, Y or Z may appear to him as if you want him to take on risks with little upside. He's probably thought about doing those things anyway but just decided it's not worth the trouble. It's not all that surprising that he doesn't want to rock the boat.