The Seventeenth turned the Senate into a Politburo, where states had to lobby to grab back the power and representation that was snatched from them—and even worse, left them competing with foreign lobbies. It was a bad idea with no purpose other than the centralization of power and taking away power from the states.
I always felt the civil war had a hand in pushing the idea of a 17th. It was a power consolidation move by the federal government.
Even though pre-17th is basically a crony system, it left room for State Legislatures to decide on how the Senator came into office.
It was not thought out correctly. Had it passed that Senators could be recalled and that they couldn’t except out of state money for their campaigns — we wouldn’t be having this type of problem.