OP--I am sorry to hear this. As others have noted, you might start looking for other tenured positions now (there are fewer tenured positions, so it may take a while) and see what happens. You do not have to move but you might. Once departments turn or begin to turn toxic, they can stay that way for years (and years). Do you really want to be there in that environment? I have seen this happen and it is demoralizing, exhausting, and excellent senior colleagues check out of faculty governance and focus entirely on research and teaching. If a strong and fair chair comes along, there is a chance to stop the toxic environment from worsening but it is a long and slow process. So, I would suggest you begin looking around and applying to places you want to go. Others here give good advice on that. Good luck.
You sound like you're describing just what's beginning to happen in our department. When I arrived, there were two or three colleagues who had lost their investment in the department, but who were active and excellent researchers and teachers. At the time, with the wave of new hires, the trend seemed to be towards drawing people more towards caring about what happened, and so these colleagues were clear outliers, and they were mostly content just to go about their own business and not cause trouble.
However, the eruption of anger involves two of these individuals, and it's sucked several others in. The thing that concerns me is that at root, this is a fight over the direction of the department, both in research and in teaching. I fear that for future hires in particular, because each position will be seen as a potential new vote for one faction of the other. My gut feeling is that all the fighting will end only when one side gets depopulated enough by attrition just to lose and check out. That could take a while. I don't want to end up demoralized or exhausted, and it's true, too, that I don't want to work around people who feel that way.
Start looking. I did, and I moved.
For me, the situation was similar in terms of attrition, but the remaining faculty were just the opposite of your department - fantastic, genial folks. My issue was the state's economy, and the ever-decreasing support from the administration. Constant downsizing, constant assessment, and constant self-justification.
Here's the thing: you have tenure, so you can take your time. Wait for the right positions to come up, and cherry-pick the ones in desirable locations, in desirable departments. I only looked at privates with hella good endowments, because I was sick and tired of my fate being in the hands of intellectually-challenged state legislators. Figure out what your goals are, what you'd want in a department and university, and target those departments. It's possible that you might only apply to one department a year. That's okay. Only apply if you'd take the job if offered. Targeting in this way allows you to really tailor your application, which is very nice.
Anyway, when I got the offer I wanted, I took it. I gave up tenure in order to have peace of mind. I figure I earned tenure once, and I can do it again, and I'll probably do it better this time. I'm certainly wiser than I was the first time around.
Best of luck to you. You can do it. Just wait for your pitch, and when it comes, knock it out of the park.
This sounds like the right strategy- I think I have been feeling like it's all in or all out, not for any particularly good reason. I did throw my hat in the ring for one very attractive job this year. The process is moving slowly, but it looks like I'll at least make the shortlist, which is a good sign. It's long odds that I'll get hired, but a shortlisting gives me some faith that I can find a new home somewhere that might be nice to work.
The funding issue is a real concern for us, too. We're facing cuts, although not in the league of many places. The real problem is that there are very strict laws (or rather, regulations) about how the universities can spend their allotted monies. Oddly, this protects current faculty salaries (although not benefits), but it means that the university has minimal capacity to prioritize its spending. The consequences range from the comic to the depressing. One depressing change is that there is a reduction in janitorial staff, and I don't really need to explain further about that.
