If the 17th is repealed, I suspect the states would just eventually all cave in to letting their citizens vote anyway, as is done today. And once that happened, we’d never go back. In fact, the pressure would be on immediately because that’s the status quo now.
So, we repeal the 17th, and virtually every state government immediately caves to it’s voters and leaves the election of senators in their hands.
No, the better way to ensure that we don’t have lifetime senators and congressmen is term limits. They need to serve as a public service, not for personal enrichment, but once ensconced in office more or less permanently, personal enrichment becomes a priority for too many today.
By the time of the 17th, almost all states had popular election of senators, indirectly if not directly. Repeal is a good idea, but the the quality of senators might not improve much, and the problem of entrenched Congressional staffers would probably get worse.
At least it would get senators like McCain and Reid off the stage.