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What led to this mess?
The popular election of senators.

Lets put our thinking cap on here. What was the problem that led to the popular election of senators. It was corruption, because power to select was put in the hands of a few state legislatures and they used that power for personal advantage.

So to counter this concentration of power and corruption, we said we would bring the election to the people. Sounds good, does it not? Problem solved. But this was a step toward democracy and we were a republic.

So put that cap on snugly and tell me what the real problem and solution is, not the symptom.

Spare your snark for someone who cares.

Did popular election eliminate corruption in the senate? Corruption was way overblown by the progressives of the day. As to what corruption existed, any political body will have dishonest characters, and the solution was, and is, to prosecute them.

THE primary safeguard to republican liberty was the vertical separation of powers represented by a senate of the states. Power was divided between the enumerated authority granted to the federal government and near plenary powers that remained with the states.

Power rapidly moved to Washington DC these past hundred years when the states were not around to defend themselves.