Keeping the Constitution up to date with the things that became necessary in past 200 years would probably have required an average of one amendment every ten years or so. What is so outrageous about that? I'd rather amend the Constitution once every ten years, or even once every five, using the process outlined in Article V, then have the Constitution amended constantly, without state approval, by nine men in robes.
You're right about the men in robes, but that's only when they create new "rights" not found in the Constitution. It's not difficult to construe that the Founders would have wanted an Air Force, if they ever could have envisioned one, is not a large leap.