Is it even possible to step back from this level of polarization? Centrists quickly get shoved into one side or the other depending on where their funding or family loyalties are. It just keeps ratcheting up when I start to think it's starting to level off

I don't know how. When people get sorted into fighting tribes by politics or religion, you can simply refuse to tell about your own, or pretend that you have none, or choose a weird option outside of the main conflict.

But when people get sorted by gender, or black versus white, it doesn't matter what you do, they have already sorted you. (You can choose a neutral nickname online, but offline you don't have that option.)

You can say that you don't care about these things as much as they do, or in the way they do -- they will call you a liar.

You can say that they are free to disbelieve but you won't join their fight anyway -- "your" side will call you a traitor, and the other side will accuse you of trying to trick them.

One option is to avoid the public places where the fight is going on, and only interact with your sane friends. But that's limiting, and sometimes you can't avoid the fight, for example when it comes to your job.

That's because most supposed "centrists" are just one side or the other pretending to be not that side. Real centrists exist, but are rare.

Honestly, yes I think it is possible for things to get better because they have frankly been FAR worse, for reference see most of human history. Most of us lived our formative years in an era of unprecedented peace, we currently find ourselves in an era of transition which often leads to periods of tribalism and strife.