It has been a rough summer for the Senate. The Republicans’ push to pass President Trump’s big, fat bill was a contentious, exhausting odyssey that left even some in the majority bruised. There have been fierce clashes over confirmation votes, including Democrats stalking out of a Judiciary Committee hearing. And the Jeffrey Epstein drama got so spicy that the House fled town early to avoid dealing with it.

While the president has been aggressively encroaching on the Senate’s authority, including usurping Congress’s power of the purse, the chamber’s troubles long predate him. Members current and former, Republican and Democratic, say the job comes with a sense of growing frustration and declining cachet. The legislative process is a hot mess, and increasingly dominated by giant omnibus bills. Cross-aisle comity is passé. Independence and ideological heterodoxy are treated as heresy.

“The problem is that we can’t get shit done,” said Tina Smith, the Minnesota Democrat who announced in February she would not seek re-election in 2026. Creative obstructionism, she told me, has become “a fine art that has reached its apex so that the institution is nearly paralyzed.”

“It is bad — really bad,” Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, told The Times’s Carl Hulse of the current mood. “How do we get back to doing our jobs?”

A more crucial question may be who still has the stomach for the job, let alone the desire. The number of senators fleeing the chamber is already above average for an election cycle, including some younger members (by Senate standards) who have announced their retirement, such as Ms. Smith; Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat; and Thom Tillis, a Republican who decided to pack it in after clashing with Mr. Trump. Two senators have announced they are pursuing the more appealing gig of governor — Tommy Tuberville, Republican of Alabama, and Michael Bennet, Democrat of Colorado — and others are considering following suit.