One of the most effective ways the Trogs have of playing tanglefoot in policy discussions is to point back to how both houses of Congress were designed to be as inefficient as possible, with the not-subtle emphasis that this was a way of keeping government off our backs that the Founders favored. (I most recently saw this occur on Real Time, when Michele Caruso-Cabrera (sp?) was on.)
This trap works because there's a certain obtuse truth to it: it may not have been built for comfort, but certainly not for speed. Thus, the stumbling of the liberals and the recovery (somewhat) of the Trogs.
What's maddening about it is that this trick is SO easily countered: govt HAD TO MOVE SLOWLY when there were no phones, no internet, interstates or air travel. Otherwise it would all be over before the voters knew something was up (hardly representative, that) in a world where it could take WEEKS to get word out to & back from the hinterlands.
Accommodations to foot traffic and pony express have no bearing on how matters should proceed in the 24/7 world, nor do they tell us ANYTHING about the Founders' opinions on governmental inefficiency for its own sake.
Next time someone tries to tanglefoot you with the straw man of inefficiency, whack 'em on the conceptual knee-cap w/ this one. And keep going!