Each side gerrymanders so they won't agree to abolish it.

It would be very difficult to truly "abolish" gerrymandering because there's no one objectively fair way to drive lines on a map. Some states have tried to make it more fair by opening proposed maps up to outside nonpartisan bodies for approval (which is why California needed a special ballot measure to even be able to consider their current gerrymandering scheme), but there's never going to be a perfect way to carve up a map and let everyone in it feel equally represented.