If all you two ever do is complain together, that’s not a friendship. That’s a support group for staying stuck.

Complaining together feels close, because you are agreeing about something real. The catch is that the conversation only rewards the version of your life where nothing can change, so you both keep supplying material for it. Nobody is doing this deliberately. It just becomes the format, and after a while neither of you brings good news into the room because it does not fit there.

Bring one thing you are actually trying next time you talk. See whether they meet you there, because plenty of people will. If every attempt gets dragged back into the complaining, you know what the friendship is running on.