Are career politicians more helpful or hurtful?

Are career politicians more a part of the problem or needed as part of the solution? There is an ad running here in Cali that alludes to doing more of the same without results is crazy. Isn’t that what happens in just about every election? Once you get into office you can be almost comatose and not lose your job. If you don’t make any major screw ups you can be in Congress or the Senate for decades. Is that good or bad? If you are a career politician you are there long enough to know how government work but also there long enough to cozy up to all the lobbyist. If you are there that long people get comfortable with you but you can also get so complacent that you feel you don’t have to really try, just show up. If you have a bloc of congressmen or senators who have been there as long as furniture how can you get fresh ideals or a new direction? If they could only hold office too short of a time then they might not try because they would be spending too much time lining up the next office when they had to leave their present one.