How do I reduce the slop?

When I say 'slop,' I just mean completely useless content. YouTube used to be a place where I could actually learn things, or watch something interesting and fun, but now the videos feel entirely meaningless. Even when I click 'Not interested,' the algorithm keeps feeding me the same slop. So I don't use YouTube as much anymore. I guess this must be working for YouTube since they keep doing it.

1. Is there anything I can do to get good, interesting content back?

2. Also, it feels like it's actively trying to push me down weird algorithmic pipelines. Anyone else experiencing this?