Short handed/ Bubble Play strategy?

4-players remaing in a NL hold'em SNG's.
The situation I have a problem with is when I'm sitting directly to the left of a loose-agressive player with a large chip lead.
I have the hand history and chip count of this specific tournament, but I asking for general advice when I'm in this situation again.
My goal was not to win this tournament at this stage, but to make it past the bubble, where I could isolate the loose-aggressive player heads-up.

I play mainly $10 NL sng. I've had success using the Tight-Aggressive style until I reached this point of the tournament.

In this tournament, I have the second largest chip stack, but I'm first to act seated to directly left huge stack "maniac".

The remaining two players to my left are experienced tight aggressive players. The short stacked player is in third to act following the huge chip leader.

The "maniac" played nearly raised every pot, raising 5xBB or higher putting any caller at risk of their entire chip stack to a race for the tournament life.

The "maniac" was a huge fish. He built is lead on a previous 4-way preflop all-in with three other fish. Went all-in with a K4 offsuit and hit a fullhouse.

My Question: For the remainder of the tournament I never started with a premium starting hand. Any hand I would call this maniac with I felt would have been a coin flip.

Sitting in second place at this point. Do I challenge with marginal hand?

The blinds increased where the short stack had to make a move. He goes all-in and goes heads-up with the maniac. The short stack doubles up.

The maniac is still the chip leader. I usually play solid poker, but I felt like a rookie in this situation. The maniac continued rasing 5xBB and I continued folding my rags while the blinds starting chipping away my stack.

I finished 4th in tournment which is usually not a problem. I generally learn more from losses than my wins. I reviewed my hand history and
and don't see a opportuntity where I felt its was more than a coin flip to stay in the tournament.

I assume I'm playing too tight at this stage. However the two players following me continued folded until the blinds reached the level where they were the shortest stack and had to call, which put them all-in.
Nobody challenged the maniac, just waiting for someone else to make a move.
Next hand:
Maniac 7,800 chips A9 raise
Club52 * 2,4oo 4,5 SB 400 fold
buzzy 1,000 AQ BB 800 called
philxx 2,500 J3 fold

Buzzy doubles up.

Couple had later I'm dealt pkt KK , Maniac raise with JT. I call he flops two pair, I fininish in fourth. Bad beat? or playing incorrectly not challeging the Maniac early with marginal hands?

I'm not concerned about this particular tournament.
But how to properly play short handed when your seated directly left of the huge cheaper leader who is betting super aggressively and you are concerned about the actions of the two remaining sharp hold'em players to your left?

Club52