We dart and tear around hopelessly — and fail to progress (5,5)
I believe the answer is:
tread water
'fail to progress' is the definition.
(to tread water is to stay in the same position)
'we dart and tear around hopelessly' is the wordplay.
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'around hopelessly' indicates an anagram (a hopeless spelling).
'we'+'dart'='wedart'
'wedart' after 'tear' is 'tearwedart'.
'tearwedart' with letters rearranged gives 'TREAD WATER'.
'and' is the link.
(Other definitions for tread water that I've seen before include "Mainly make no progress" , "Make little or no progress" , "having no solid base" , "fail to make progress!" , "Hold back from making progress" .)