You know things are way out of whack when the federal government gets more tax money from the citizens than state government does. But, hey, the states just let the fed keep on rollin’.
The states, unfortunately in my opinion, yielded a substantial amount of their influence and therefore check on the power of the federal government, through approval of the 17th Amendment.
Prior to that there was a Congressional body elected by the general populace, and a Congressional body elected or appointed by the state legislatures (in thoery to represent the state).
Now that senators are elected by the populace instead of the state, they have absolutely no reason to serve the state as it is. If they did serve the state there sure as hell would be fewer laws that that bend the states over with the "you'll do X or lose your federal funding for Y" tactic. Instead of focusing on bringing home the pork from their federal handlers, they would be fighting to keep their states cash in state to start with.
My Utopian view...
You have a point, but if you don’t like the Senators that voters in places like New York and Massachusetts elect, can you imagine how little you would like the ones that the governments in those states would select? ;-)