Contacts and forming a group

Whatever you have done to the Contacts list is absolutely abominable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't seem to form a new group to save my life, though I did manage to somehow wipe out all of the contacts I wanted to place in that group. Now, I can't un do that! There must be (and WAS) an easier way to manage this. I think it is just nuts to have to spend several hours on what should take five minutes.