I know what you mean. I raked leaves the other day in the back yard for about 60 minutes and filled up an entire outside garbage can, which by the way was empty.
After that I looked at the back yard and it looked like I had done nothing at all!!
Two days ago I saw an info commercial for a Worx Trivac. It is a blower, a vacuum, and a mulcher all in one.
When you vacuum up the leaves it automatically grinds up the leaves and you can use whats left for mulch.
I'm thinking about getting one. They charge your credit card $33.00 X 3 months.
Need to do some more research to see if it is as easy as it shows on tv.