Madison wasn't thinking about a populace that is as degraded as is the one we see today, much less that such people were at all fit to govern themselves. Which they manifestly are not. And, yet, here we are.
Our "constitutional system" has failed. Of that, there is no question. The question on the table now is, what happens next?
He probably wasn’t thinking of women in Congress either, which isn’t a bad thing. He may have been thinking of people serving with a greater sense of country than we have today which is a failure of the people not the Constitution. As Franklin said, we have a republic if you (we) can keep it. Fair to say we couldn’t in the 1860s, we’ll see what hatred of country does today
The system that our Founders fought and died for hasn’t failed us.
We have failed to secure what they entrusted us.
What’s next?
“These agencies “of skilled, economic administration,” as Woodrow Wilson put it, would be staffed by the “hundreds who are wise” empowered by the federal government and its coercive powers to guide the thousands who are “selfish, ignorant, timid, stubborn, or foolish,” that is, the mass of ordinary, uncredentialed citizens.”
otherwise known as ‘Central Planning’.