The exchanges are one of the worst problems with bitcoin right now. I seen some developers working on a p2p version of an exchange, but sadly nothing has been released yet as far as I know. There is a large opportunity out there for exchanging bitcoin into cash for anyone with the know-how and money to back it up. The ideal use of bitcoin though is for us to exchange it as we do fiat currencies. Keep it in your digital wallet and spend it as needed. Investing/trading as of now is risky.
As far as MtGox....yea they suck. It's the same reason I go to any shit store/service provider. There are no options.
What sort of p2p systems exist?