You guys need to stop complaining and start being more aggressive, in a non-dickhead way. On my Surgery rotation, I made it clear that I would do anything to help the team. They were busy, so once they believed I was competent, I was basically given the go-ahead to manage patients all on my own, but I had to work up to that by helping with stuff like getting dressing change supplies, anticipating what they would need on rounds and having it ready for them beforehand (shows an understanding of what you need to do to manage a post-op patient,) being aggressive about pre-rounding on patients, taking on a big patient load and making sure I was the one presenting them (even if that meant I had to stop the intern before he presented them for me - and I did do that, and he eventually realized it was a load off him because he didnt have to see those four patients in the morning, cutting his census from 20 to 16.)
It is so easy to get upset about being ignored, it is much harder to do something about it and keep yourself chipper. By the last week of my rotation I became much more aggressive about asking attendings to let me close the case because I figured, they are going to forget to let me unless I make it clear that I WANT THIS. I want to be involved, I am capable, and I will help, if you teach me. This is what they signed up for by choosing to work at an academic hospital, and interns and residents are only 1-5 years away from being where you were and are fools if they dont remember what it is like.
True, I have never had to deal with malignancy in my residents, I have been very lucky. But I have also turned the corner on rotations that could have been a huge waste of my time by finding a way to integrate myself into the team, starting small at first (always having a scut bucket of dressing change supplies in the morning, making myself somewhat valuable on morning rounds) and working up to - "Hey, Ms. Smith didnt get her portable chest in the morning, how about I go write that order and will you drop by and cosign it later?" to "I am taking care of this patient. Myself. Please supervise."
VFTW