I'm facing an issue when attempting to install packages with pip, particularly with the error pointing to a missing distutils module despite having setuptools installed. The traceback leads to an exception raised within pip's internal processing, specifically at pip_vendor\pyproject_hooks_impl.py. Despite ensuring setuptools is up-to-date and attempting various fixes, the problem persists, suggesting a deeper issue possibly related to the environment or Python installation itself. Any guidance on resolving this, especially in cases where distutils is assumed to be part of the Python standard library, would be highly appreciated.
I attempted to install a package using pip and expected the installation to proceed smoothly, especially since I made sure that setuptools was up to date in my environment. I anticipated that any dependency, including distutils, would be resolved automatically as part of the standard Python library or through the updated setuptools. Instead, the process resulted in a ModuleNotFoundError for distutils, which was surprising given its typical inclusion in the Python standard library. This error persisted even after verifying and attempting fixes, pointing to a deeper issue within my Python installation or environment setup.