At some level its exactly that though. Conservatism generally seeks to preserve an existing social hierarchy in some way, its most mild forms seeking to slow or moderate change to it, and its most extreme forms seeking to roll back previous changes to implement some previous iteration (or what that previous iteration is perceived to be anyway). The left generally seeks to replace or dismantle that hierarchy in some way, but what exactly it is to be replaced with varies with the person or subgroup within it. (This is I think also why its prone to fighting with itself, just because two people dont like the existing thing doesnt mean that they think eachother's ideas on what to do instead will work or would be desirable, and in extreme cases the gap could be even worse than between what one wants and the existing thing, but thats another matter.) There are different words out there to describe the different alignments already, but the overarching term still gives some useful description in implying a dissatisfaction with the current order of society.

Leftists are generally in the socialist area. Anarchists are usually over in left field as well. Anyone that supports any form of capitalism isn’t on the left, such as liberals. Capitalism is where these problems come from.