Just picked this game up and played 4 games or so with a friend last night.

Every single game, one person would just get way ahead and it was impossible for the other person to recover.

Sometimes after as few as 4 or 5 turns, one of us would just scoop because there was no point in continuing.

Is this typical?

Is there no maximum hand size? I didn't see that mentioned anywhere and it seems odd.

If you're not making decks and just playing with the core set cards, the gameplay can be a bit bumpy at times and certain factions are obviously stronger than the others.

There are a few cards that can help you recover (Troll Vomit comes to mind). Other than that - like in any game being ahead means being ahead. If you have more cards (options) you might be able to build decks that recover more quickly.