

Well yes and no. The Federalist papers are propaganda and it is therefore
difficult to determine precisely what Maddison etc were up to from them. They
certainly emphasised a limited role for the federal government but this
was not necessarily their true position.


The Senate was less powerful than the House of Lords in the period in question.
The stripping of the powers of the House of Lords did not occur until 1914
and David Llloyd George's budget. Even despite this the House of Lords has
considerable power even today and is far from a rubber stamping body. 



The system is meant to be slow to react, the problem is that it ended up
a bit too slow.



The Presiden't veto was meant to be entirely separate. Until Bush abused it
in a quite extraordinary manner it was used more in accord with the intent
of being a check on unreasonable legislation. The veto was clearly regarded 
as a completely last gasp measure its use was meant to be restricted to
preventing the legislature interfering with the actions of the executive.