But is the problem with the Senate itself, or with the senators? Earlier this year, The Fix asked former Senate parliamentarian Alan Frumin to share his thoughts on this issue.

Frumin worked in the Senate parliamentarian’s office for 35 years — including nearly 19 years leading the office — essentially serving as the referee on matters of Senate procedure. He retired in 2012 with the title of parliamentarian emeritus of the U.S. Senate.

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Frumin joked that each Senate parliamentarian has the right to amend the Constitution once in their lives, and that his addition would be a provision demanding that “senators be responsible adults only.”

Below is a portion of the interview with Frumin, edited only for length and clarity.

THE FIX: It seems the default judgement that gets passed on the Senate is that it’s gridlocked, or not working, or hyper-partisan. Is it a fair assessment?

FRUMIN: Well, it’s a little-known fact that each Senate parliamentarian gets to amend the U.S. Constitution once, one provision of their choosing. And I have yet to exercise mine but I am about to do it. And I would amend the Constitution to add an additional qualification for senators. In addition to the minimum age of 30 and, I guess, citizen of the U.S. for nine years, etc., etc., I would require that senators be responsible adults only.

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The Senate only functions if there is a critical mass of what I’d like to refer to as responsible adults. People who recognize that the Senate is a complex mechanism. It’s not and has not worked over the years as a simple majoritarian body. It has worked over the years as the one place that balances majority rule and minority privileges. And in doing that, it’s the only place in the federal government that protects, that empowers those who are out of power. And that works if and only if those on both sides of that divide behave responsibly. It only works if those in the minority who have been given the privilege of filibustering don’t abuse that privilege. ... The majority has the power to simply nullify a precedent, to rewrite precedents. They don’t have to amend the rules to do that. So the majority has the power to squash the minority. The minority has been given the privilege over the years by the majority to engage in filibusters. This only works if both parties act as responsible adults, if both parties act with restraint. And unfortunately, for whatever reason, the current political environment does not put a premium on restraint. Everybody basically employs all their powers to the fullest. And in that environment, the model of the Senate as the place where responsible adults treat each other with respect and restraint across the aisle, that model, that paradigm is under serious assault. And to me, it would be a crying shame — I worked there for 35 years, I understood, and I think you had to work there, you had to be inside, and I realize it, recognizing and embracing the filibuster as the norm, that’s certainly, it’s not natural.

It’s an acquired taste, but it’s a taste that, as a nonpartisan staffer, I came to embrace. And I think it’s a very important paradigm, very important for the country, that there is one body where the minority has some leverage. To me, it’s a very important paradigm, and it’s a paradigm that those in the majority continue to push against. And my hope is that there are enough responsible adults in both parties who recognize that if you break that paradigm, it would be very difficult to reconstruct it, but that it’s a paradigm that is very important to preserve. And what that requires is restraint on both parties. ... Both parties need to back off somewhat in order for a very, very vital entity in our federal system to retain its uniqueness.

THE FIX: Do you see this happening or do you see this getting worse?

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FRUMIN: Well, I’ve seen it get worse. And the question is, how does one arrest the decline of the uniqueness of the Senate as an institution? It has declined in that respect. The political scientists and others can crunch the numbers and see how many filibusters there have been, how many cloture motions have been filed. You look back and you see that restraint has sort of left, left the building. They liked to say Elvis has left the building. Well, I was not so much a fan of Elvis, I was a fan and remain a fan of restraint in the political realm. And restraint, respect and restraint, those two qualities are essential to make the Senate work. And my hope is that there is a critical mass of responsible adults who understand that and are willing to arrest the slide, the slide away from that paradigm.

THE FIX: It seems you are referring to the “nuclear option” of 2013 and 2017. Do you worry about the Senate, about the fate of the Senate?