And the anser is----------TERM LIMITS!!!!
TERM LIMITS fixes ALL of the problems. It should be applied to ALL levels of government and to EVERY elective or non-civil service appointive office.
I have some sympathy for term limits. However, in some sense they are just surrender, in that we concede we can't get the bums out of office through elections, so we just limit their ability to do damage. Restoring competitive elections, if possible, would IMHO be better. But it may not be possible.
Also, I wonder what people who live in states with term limits think. Are they working? Is governance better? California has gotten into a huge mess while they have a term-limited legislature, but it may not be fair to blame their problems on that.
Also, federal term limits would have to be done via constitutional amendment, which would be very difficult. At the federal level I wonder what else might work.