[pdonis]

> it caused unneeded intra-party drama

That seems like a problem with the parties.

> all of the legislators are now short-timers. But do you know who aren't newbs? The lobbyists!

Sounds like a reason to outlaw lobbying.

> I think the very top legislators are ones that become a true expert in their field of interest.

They're not actual experts in the actual field. They're experts in working the system to favor partisans of the field. Not the same thing.

An actual expert in an actual non-political field would be doing productive work in that field. The real root problem is that we expect politicians to be "experts" in anything other than making sure the government does the limited things it's supposed to do, and nothing else--we want to use the government as a tool to solve whatever problems we see, instead of as an umpire whose sole job should be protecting everyone's basic rights and stopping there.