's/sounds/is/', all too often. Sociologically, it's very much a medieval feudal system, with all the benefits and horrors that that implies.

From my PhD supervisor's perspective, he holds no grudges against me. He's simply believes that I'm unreliable. (Or something like that. He never clearly told me what his problem with me was.) I freely admit that I've made mistakes. Frankly, quitting my first PhD project was hard on me and I wasn't productive for a while after that. But I did eventually improve and he never noticed! He seemed to ignore anything good I did and focus on the (inevitable) things that didn't work.

In retrospect, it would have been better for me to switch PhD supervisors or quit academia entirely.

The problem is with the structure of academia in my view. Disagreements are inevitable, but don't make someone unemployable because of them.

>He's simply believes that I'm unreliable. (Or something like that. He never clearly told me what his problem with me was.)

Have you asked him?

The last time I spoke to him, I stated something along the lines of "I know that you have some problems with me". My goal was to see what could be done to reconcile with him. He explicitly denied having any problems with me. I was applying for jobs at the time and needed references from him, and after this conversation he stopped replying to those requests. His behavior doesn't make sense if he really doesn't have any problems with me.