For anyone else running into a similar issue with Azure Cloud hosting and ClearDB … read below (even though this is very specific to my site and db config):
Fixed the issue. This was a database specific issue with Azure and ClearDB and not pointing to the correct database. I was using a free version of the ClearDB MySQL (20MB, up to 4 connections). Upgraded to the next paid version (1GB, up to 16 connections), but even though I was pointing to the new database tables were the old ones.
For the free version, ClearDB removes admin privileges when you reach the 20MB limit (which I did). That’s why I couldn’t save, publish or do anything a regular admin can do.
Fixing the database tables and making sure the site is pointing to the upgraded one fixed my issue.