One solution to all this (but will NEVER get passed by either party) would be to pass term limits to ALL elected officials. They would be elected for ONE 6-year term. It would be one term for life. It would accomplish two major points. One being that once elected they have no reason to sell their soles to the special interests that donated the money (and essentially bought that person the election). They would do the job that they said they would do and not have to worry about getting enough money to run for reelection, And two, it would do what the founding fathers originally envisioned - public service and not a cushy job for life with enormous benefits that the rest of us pay for.
Hey, we can dream can't we?