You might want to read up on the 17th. There were a lot of good reasons for passing it at the time, and by the time of its passage, most states had, on their own, gone to a form of direct election.
I have explained what a state is before. A state is not the people of the state. A state is an entity. Those entities were deprived of their sufferage without their consent. That is why Madison went to such lengths to protect their sufferage. They were essential to what he called the republic. The states have no sufferage in the Senate.
The 17th Amendment denies States themselves representation as it makes Senators directly elected by the people-of-the States rather than the people-acting-as-the-state [state legislators].