The "popularly elected senate" is an oxymoron. A popularly elected senate is really a House, where the members have 6 year terms. Their original purpose was to say no. Now they are too heholden to have any discipline. The 17th Amendment(1913) seems to me the worst thing that happened in the 20th Century, and the 14th was the worst thing in the 19th.
Again, we're in complete agreement. And we came to these same conclusions independently.