Bull.
Only after the 17th did power consolidate in DC.
It gave us Wickard v. Filburn, a federal court system hostile to retained state powers, "unfunded mandates," and top down agencies like the EPA and department of non-education that push the states around.
Madison and the Framers were well aware of man's fallen nature. The system they set up countered interest with another interest. The feds v. the states were supposed to be in tension; they were. By that tension, neither the states nor feds could seriously affect our freedoms.
You still haven't answered my question, presumably because you can't.
I have NEVER predicted rainbows and lollipops upon repeal of the 17th. Repeal is a necessary first step to correct the damage done by a hundred years of demagogic senators.
Really ? That seems to be your stock-in-trade.
"Repeal is a necessary first step to correct the damage done by a hundred years of demagogic senators."
You keep telling yourself that. We'd be lucky to have a Senate that wasn't substantially worse than the one at present, lined with party hacks thoroughly unaccountable to the people (nevermind the Constitution). Not a single Ted Cruz amongst them.