This should actually say, "An Impotent Senate." Since Senators are no longer directly answerable to their home state legislatures, they tend to grandstand for their own political gains. Arcane rules allow individual Senators to block action on a wide variety of matters. Therefore, little if anything ever gets done.
Consider how the Senate typically deals with controversial bills today. Instead of a deliberative and unpredictable process in which its members debate competing ideas, party leaders direct a stage-managed process designed explicitly to create the appearance of genuine deliberation on the Senate floor without its unpredictability. Doing so may make life easier for members in both parties. But that convenience also makes the minority more powerful than it would otherwise be if the Senate adhered to its rules. And, paradoxically, it also makes it easier for the leadership of both parties to limit the ability of individual senators in the minority from participating in the legislative process in the first place.
The article then presents several example of Senate dysfunction @ An Impotent Congress - Law & Liberty
