How do I deal with only being noticed at work when something breaks?

You can trace any system in that turbine. When it runs, it runs because of people like you, and no one thinks about it. The moment the blades stop, suddenly everyone is looking. The resentment you feel is fair. It stings to be invisible in success and blamed in failure. But turn it over for a second. The reason no one notices is that you do the work so well it disappears. Smooth running is not the absence of your labor; it is your labor, done right. The quiet is your signature. The people who only see you when things break are simply not skilled enough to see the thousand times you kept them from breaking. You will not get that recognition from them, so stop waiting on it. Let it come from your own knowing, and from the few who actually understand the work. At the end of a day when everything ran, mark it privately: that was me. And find the peers who get it, because being seen by people who truly understand is worth more than applause from those who never will.