System Preferences does ABSOLUTELY nothing anymore

My Macbook Air mid-2013 model running MacOS Big Sur 11.7.10 has its system preference broken. The padlock to make changes doesn't do anything when clicked and so does every other tab or setting. Now, I can get into panels like Sound or Accessibilities, but everything that I SHOULD be able to do within them just... doesn't work. Nothing happens when I click on them. It's like they're just images.