Medium contributor Allen Milne Lees has written a book on his solution which addresses some this article's questions.

Basically, all legislation should be decided by referenda--only about 14% of people will be allowed to vote. Here is my review of his work:

https://medium.com/politically-speaking/book-review-why-democracy-failed-b63f263d325e

Or you could check out my byline. I believe our dysfuctionality is inherent because we insist on political parties to govern us. We must remove the parties.