Call me ageist, I don’t give a fuck, these people aren’t at the top of their game, hell they aren’t even at 50% of what the top of their game used to be. Furthermore, like you said, it’s absolute bullshit that people can make laws that they won’t see the effects of.
Cut off rep age at something like 60 if not 50. The younger generations should be the ones deciding the future, it’s THEIR future after all.
I'd double check term limits. We could just as easily create a chain of debauchery as we lose all experienced politicians that might be able to help. There would only be more incentives to line your own pockets when you only got 4 years. I hate seeing the extremely elderly pretend its 1978 too but I don't think term limits are the answer. I think we need more transparency on politicians, what they represent, their past actions (especially at local levels those people are nearly invisible), and most importantly we need to slit Lobbying's throat and drain all the blood just to be sure.
Everyone assumes term limits would be something super low like 4 or 8 years. In reality, it’d probably be something like 32 years, which is 8 terms. Still long enough to get a good career, but it ensures that someone entering the senate in their 30 or 40’s will be retiring at a reasonable age. Because the current problem is that everyone should’ve retired twenty or thirty years ago.
That's how you'll end up with a list of doctors who get a nice pay raise (whether on or off the books) to rubber-stamp candidates through the exam requirement. Honest physicians who are willing to disqualify will have to be mindful of possible retribution as well.
Then it should be an objective test. Familiarity with current events, geography, physics, calculus, micro and macro economics. Final exam of 101 courses would be sufficient. 80% or higher and you get to take office, otherwise the next highest voted politician gets a shot at it.
A board of representatives from the 10 largest public colleges gets to write, administer and grade the test.
If the test is mainly looking for signs of dementia or other mental declines, the test takers themselves could write the test and all vote on it before taking it.
Get rid of the senate. It is the US aristocracy, anti democratic, and serves no useful purpose.
Require the house to have more votes (or a supermajority, whichever is less) to repeal a law than were needed to pass it. Edit: this reduces the effect of instability that removing the Senate would produce, while allowing the House to respond quickly to injustice.
Require the House to pass a budget once per term. If they (and the president) can’t pass a budget, the session ends, and they all (including the president) go up for re-election.
I’d say congress should pick the president, but that would tip my hand that I think Parliament is a better system of government.