I've been lucky with my career in that I have never wanted to leave a job because it (or the other people there) sucked. However, I have been laid off a couple of times and, you are right... it is a nightmare finding a new gig. On one of those occasions, the reason I was laid off was the economic climate and so my job hunt was against a riptide - it took most of a year. Trust me, I know how hard it can be to find a new job.

Still. If you are working in an environment where you are constantly scared of losing your job anyway, where you have little authority or support from your colleagues and bosses but you have lots of responsibility, or where you are doing work that you do not occasionally feel pride in... GET OUT.

Take a month or two. Maybe three at the most, but get out of there. Otherwise you will get sucked into that morass of misery and you will end up destroying any relationships you have and losing the desire to remain in the best job in the world - you'll eventually be fired or quit and will next be seen on Fox News wearing camo, a beard and a tin-foil skullcap. It ain't worth it.