Author here.

That sounds exhausting to say the least.

It’s very easy to turn into the Sarah - or the Brent if you prefer the Phoenix Project analogy. As exciting as it might initially be to be the go-to person, it’s also, as you so elegantly put it, “endless work, just enough authority to do current task, not enough respect/authority to solve the symptom”.

Best wishes! I hope you manage to turn it around.