This is why the progressives pushed for the 17th amendment. Easier to control the senate if you disconnect it from the state legislatures.
By making Senators nothing more then a Congresscritter-at-Large for the state. It also introduced the partisan rancor into the Senate that the House always had. Over time this rancor has grown exponentially.
Multiple term senators are now so disconnected from their states most couldn’t find their way back to the state capitals without a GPS & a map!