The Progressives managed to break this stranglehold during the TR and Wilson administrations via law and changing the Constitution. But when money moves around, it's hard to prevent people from grifting on that money. It's like trying to keep ants out of the pantry. You plug one hole, and they'll find another way to get in. But K Street has become so powerful that there might be an advantage to forcing a breakup of K Street and pushing that graft and corruption back into the states. Might.
I'm an old cynic when it comes to human behavior, so I suspect we'll reopen an old can of worms if we repeal the 17th Amendment. But I can see one way to make it work.
Under the Articles of Confederation, congresscritters were appointed by the state legislatures, and those legislatures could recall them. We don't have that under the Constitution. Even before the 17th Amendment, the state legislatures appointed senators for a six year term. Maybe a repeal of the 17th should have senators be appointed by the state legislatures on an "at will" basis with a caveat concerning term limits. The senator has that job until he dies, quits, is term limited, or the legislature terminates his employment.
I wonder how effective the Senate would be if they didn't have at least some sense of security from a secure term.
If a legislature could recall a Senator over a vote they didn't like, then just disband the Senate and give each state two votes. Let the Senators just debate and leave the voting to the state legislatures.
-PJ