I'm sorry you went through that. I grew up around academics -- a few of my parents' friends were professors and one was a research chemist, then I had several former professors as teachers in high school; the message from them was always clear -- academia is awful because of politicking, backstabbing, and the neverending need to be publishing something next week no matter what you did last month.

The quote, often misattributed, "Academic politics is the most vicious and bitter form of politics, because the stakes are so low." has always stuck with me because of this. As I watched my wife pursue her postgraduate work in Chemistry, I was granted the unfortunate privilege of seeing it first hand. She now works as a children's librarian and is much happier.