Occasionally. The legendary "Mr. Republican" Bob Taft became Senator under the current system of direct elections, for example. (his portrait hangs on the Senate wall along side such greats as Daniel Webster) He was a fantastic leader in the 40s and 50s. I wish he had become President instead of Ike.
>> Rather, the Senate HAD Statesmen and subsequent to the 17th the traditions that encouraged them steadily eroded till we have this lot. They get worse, not better. <<
Most of the "statesmen" produced by the old system were around prior to the civil war. The Senators it produced during the Woodrow Wilson era (immediately prior to the ratification of the 17th) were a disgraceful lot, and even more corrupt and sleazy than the current crop of U.S. Senators. Becoming U.S. Senator through bribes and backroom deals was the norm in the early 20th century.
They were a disgraceful lot for precisely the same reasons why Wilson ever was elected: dishonor and lost love for the Republic we were given were already rampant.
I mean: Wilson had the gall to credit our rights to flaccid musings of Frenchmen on the Rights of Man when, under THAT form of laws! where all things are mere artifacts of politics, those self same Frenchmen without hypocricy cast all that aside for Terrors and dechristianization.
The 17th improved nothing but only made things worse by making it easier for lawless scumbags to prosper in the absence of needing to please their own peers back home.
Sometimes a roadblock, even one that is weakened by the imposition of foreign doctrines, is better than a open highway to heck.