To support your statement, I say that the structure of our government was the reason for our prosperity. The Articles of Confederation, drafted in 1777, ratified in 1781 were soon recognized as “imbecilic” and quickly replaced in 1789.
The same American people, good and bad, virtuous and devious alike, who watched assaults on their property and were only months from dissolution, took a deep breath and created our wonderful constitution. The same people who suffered under the Articles were liberated under the Constitution. It was the structure of the Constitution that saved the rapidly failing United States.
The 17th Amendment fundamentally altered the structure of our government. It removed the vertical separation of powers that James Madison said was essential to keep the national government from consolidating all authority. Men are no different today than they were 200 or 2,000 years ago. They tend to accumulate power if they can; it is our/their nature. The division of power between the federal and State governments was the first line of defense of our freedoms.
We have zero hope of restoring our freedoms as long as Senators represent, like their House brethren, the mob and not the States.
The other problem is the 16th. Amendment. Once the Federal government had an independant source of revenue, it could ignore the states.
We agree on the problem, where we differ is on the solution.
I think you’re correct in your assessment of the 17th Amendment, but I think it’s highly unlikely that it will ever be repealed, alas.