Proofs presuppose axioms. In order to prove that "$T$ is consistent," we need to work within some other axiom system $S$; this, then means that our proof is only as convincing as our belief in the consistency of $S$. Note that even without Goedel's incompleteness theorem, we shouldn't be convinced by $S$ proving "I am consistent" - of course it would if it were inconsistent! So I actually think Goedel is a red herring, here.
That said, this doesn't kill the project of proving consistency, it just changes it. In order to prove that a theory $T$ is consistent, we want to find some theory $S$ for which we have good reason to believe that it is consistent, and then prove inside $S$ that $T$ is consistent. One standard example of this is ordinal analysis: the goal is to assign a linear order $\alpha_T$ to $T$ which is "clearly" well-ordered, and then show that the very weak theory PRA, together with "$\alpha_T$ is well-ordered", proves that $T$ is consistent (I'm skipping many details here). For $T=PA$, for instance, this was done by Gentzen; the relevant ordering is the ordinal $\epsilon_0$. This is, however, of dubious use for convincing us of the consistency of theories: for weak theories like $PA$, I find the consistency of $PA$ more "obviously true" than the well-orderedness of $\epsilon_0$, and for stronger theories the relevant $\alpha_T$s are incredibly complicated to describe.
EDIT: Symplectomorphic asked about the model-theoretic answer: we know a theory is consistent if we can exhibit a model. I did omit this above, so let me address it now. What I want to convince you of is that this is a bit more complicated than it sounds. I claim that - even if you have a model of your theory in hand - you're still going to need to do some work to convince me of the consistency of your theory, and ultimately my first paragraph above is still going to be relevant.
So suppose you have a theory $T$ you're trying to convince me is consistent, and you have a model $\mathcal{M}$ of $T$ "in hand" (whatever that means). What do you need to persuade me about?
First, you have to prove that having a model means your theory is consistent. This sounds trivial, but it's really a fact about our proof system - soundness. It's an extremely basic fact, but technically something that requires proof.
Second, when we exhibit a model, what we're really doing is describing a mathematical object. Well, you need to prove to me that it exists. There are really complicated mathematical objects out there, and theories we believe to be consistent which provably have no "simple" models (like ZFC), so this really isn't a silly objection in general.
Finally, even if I'm convinced that our logic is sound, and that the structure you've described for me exists, you need to convince me that it is in fact a model of your theory! And the more complicated your theory is, the more complicated your model will be, and hence the more difficult this task will be. In fact, this is super hard in general: is $(\mathbb{N}; +, \times)$ a model of the sentence, "There are infinitely many twin primes"? How about "ZFC is consistent"?
Now, the first obstacle is a rather silly one - I think it's fine to take the soundness of logic for granted. But the second and third aren't so trivial (and even the first isn't really completely trivial). What I'm saying is, there's no way to ground a claim of consistency as solidly as a claim of inconsistency. To show a theory is inconsistent, you exhibit a proof of a contradiction; and then I'm completely convinced. To show that a theory is consistent by exhibiting a model, you need to build a model and verify that it satisfies the theory, and each of those steps implicitly takes place in a background theory whose consistency I could in principle question.