It sounds to me like the whole software project has a bigger failing, with not enough ownership, not enough top-down direction, and not enough vision existing

Yeah this seems to be one of the biggest issues that has come out of the past week or so of conversations and discussions the group has been having. Until the group has tangible goals contextualized in a clear vision of the Project, it is impossible to prioritize work and know what areas we should be focusing on as well as what potential areas/features we may have to abandon due to time constraints.

Luckily, I have meetings with both the Project Lead and the higher ups this week, so we should be able to hash that out or at least expose the lack of vision as a major issue.