Again, I respectfully disagree that 17A is the problem. 17A did not delegate any new powers to Congress.
What 17A indicated, imo, is that parents weren't making sure that their children were being taught the Constitution and its history in the nation's schools, particularly the Founding States' division of federal and state government powers, such powers evidenced by the Constitution's Section 8 of Article I, Article V and the 10th Amendment.
As a consequence of decades of indifference to the Constitution, Constitution-ignorant voters have been tricked by OWG factions to abuse their voting power by electing corrupt federal lawmakers who blatantly ignore the federal governmet's constitutonally limited powers.
What does separation of powers mean to you?
I meant no snark in my previous post.
What the 17th did was make the national party bloc more important than the state.
With the need to now run for a seat instead of lobby the legislature for it, the need for campaign funding was strong. With 33 elections to fund every two years, there were synergies gained from forming national party campaign committees to coordinate party fundraising and disseminating funds. If a Senator wanted to benefit from this, he had to align with the party bloc's wishes, not the state's wishes.
Eliminate the elections and make the Senators have to lobby their legislatures again.
-PJ