How can I improve the experience of filling this form in?

I have a web form with several buttons - for saving/restoring drafts & also a submit button. It has the capability to display alerts when drafts get saved/restored. In the screenshot, an alert is visible.

I've obscured the sensitive info - most of the fields are just for text entry. A few may become dropdown lists at some point. I'm more concerned about layout for now. The form will only be filled in on desktops but the design is responsive anyway, just in case.

I feel like it's a bit unintuitive but I'm not sure how best to lay out the form. Any advice would be appreciated and I can provide more screenshots etc if necessary.

Form as it appears by default:

When an alert is displayed: