punkfolkrocker - "or Each could be bribed and bought off individually by corporate lobbyists and maintain a facade of acting freely... ????"

Yes, I anticipated that response coming from someone. And it is a possibility. Definitely. And it would certainly be attempted by the corporate lobbyists. And in some cases it would certainly succeed.

But do you see that if an elected legislator was an independent person free of any "party line" pressure from a centralized party top brass, that that person would be freer to think for themselves and represent their constituents, rather than becoming a passive puppet of the party line? A legislator could act independently then according to conscience and not be punished by the party for doing so, which is what happens now.

And I think the lobbyists would find it harder to corrupt the system in that case...since they wouldn't be so easily able to corrupt it "from the top down", which is how they do it now. They'd have to deal with every single legislator, and there would likely be some who would be honest, and expose and draw attention to what was going on. Without a party top brass to whip them into line, they wouldn't be so afraid to speak out.