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I am a tenured associate professor at a top 20 US research university. I am publishing and getting grants. My teaching evals are decent.

I am realizing that I am not interested in mentoring (grad or undergrad) students (— over the last 10 years, I mentored two grad students and they changed advisor before graduating). When I teach, I am not curious about students and their backgrounds.

I do not enjoy the service part of the position. My relations with other faculties in the department (size < 15) have deteriorated and are, now, cold at best.

I am in a STEM field and have had several consulting opportunities. I am wondering whether I should continue this academic career given the situation with students and faculties (~ 20 years) or whether I should quit this tenured position.

While, as Jon Custer says in a comment, we aren't qualified to direct you, I'll give a bit of advice to help you think about it.

It is hardly worth spending your life doing anything that you don't enjoy. Your life isn't a "first run".

But before you decide, find something that you do like and find a way to do that. Presumably you like research. If you can find a good research position you should probably explore that before you make any final decisions.

You will find, however, that there are trade-offs. Every job has good and bad parts. If the good parts outweigh the bad, it may be worth continuing. It isn't likely ever to be _ideal." So, look very carefully at the options.

And if you do decide to go, try to do it gracefully, without burning bridges. Your goals in the future may change and you may want to keep open the option of returning to academia.

It's a lot to walk away from. Also, we can't really tell how good the consulting opportunities are and/or if you could get a job somewhere.

If you do walk, the same issues might arise on the job. Maybe there are some very select fields where you can just be an individual researcher genius but many industrial companies (and McKinsey and Goldman) will require you to interact with colleagues. If anything it may be more possible to be asocial in academia.

Hard to really advise more without knowing what is troubling you. I would definitely look before you leap and not just leave out of pique.

Depending on your field, it may be possible that you spend an increasing amount of time doing research and less time having to teach classes as you gain seniority. However, in academia, research is always going to be at least somewhat contingent on mentoring students. There is no way around this. The service aspects of the job, although usually small, will not decrease as you go along.

If you are in a STEM discipline, there are likely many jobs in "industry" that could be more fulfilling for you (and more lucrative). I would look there with strong consideration of shifting career paths. If you have obtained tenure at a quality university, you likely have much of what it takes to succeed in "industry."

Note that there is nothing magical about tenure in STEM in my opinion. My non-university job does not offer "tenure," but even if I somehow was fired, they would need to buy out my contract and I would just go and find one of dozens of STEM research jobs out there in the near geographic area. It's sort of like tenure by abundance of employers.

These things being said, note of course that almost every research job is going to come with some mentorship and service responsibilities. I work outside of academia on government funded research. We have to mentor postdocs and grad interns occasionally. I have to attend meetings and sit on committees. Getting along with colleagues is of course part of every job.

Also note that university positions have certain job benefits that most people do not get. Academics often have large winter and summer breaks. You set your own hours. You have access to a large university library. Sometimes faculty get discounts on university events and facility access (gyms, museums, concerts, etc.)

Only you can answer that question. But, other have made similar choices before. Read the "Working Life" in Science Magazine and other Science Career articles. Many of the guest authors talk about their transitions away from academia, including tenured professors.

The Versatile PhD has many resources as well about life away from academia.