Not as bad, but I had a crisis of self changing jobs. I left a management role I had for 15 years where I had visibility / notoriety at big 10 university and moved to a much better paying work from home job in industry an army of one with little oversight.

After 3 years I haven’t really figured out how to cope with it yet. Nobody looking to me for help, nobody to mentor, basically no meetings, no water cooler… Yeah I have lost some sleep, but I picked up chess, I got back into reading, and I’ve tried to add the structure back in that I gave up even though it looks different.

What I can say is that I definitely see what you’re getting at. I strongly doubt you were a workaholic or had some kind of unhealthy relationship with capitalism or whatever other crap is going on in this thread. I’m sure we will figure it out, but it is jarring to lose the sense of purpose / accomplishment / definition of leaving a well established role. Ive still got 15 or so years before full retirement becomes an option, so if you solve it, share the knowledge ;).