Yeah, an age limit might work, certainly Thurmond stayed on too long, but guys like John McCain and Bernie Sanders (trying to be bi-partisan) aren't exactly spring chickens, but they bring a lot of institutional knowledge to the table and they still seem to have it together.

One of the real problems is the breakdown of the way it used to work in Congress. Freshman were supposed to keep their mouths shut, and maintain low profiles. there ahve always been exceptions including JFK, Obama and now Cruz who clearly never had any interest in being long term Senators, but were using their seats as platforms to run for president, but even Hillary kept quiet for two years in the Senate, made friends in both parties and then got a plum committee job.

The other thing that is missing is that it used to be that members and their families would spend most of their time in D.C., and not running to their districts all the time to raise money. This caused members to forge friendships with people with different points of view. Nowadays it is two armed camps, which is nuts.

I like the Reagan - Tip O'Neill rule that after six in the evening they would never discuss politics.