For example: it seems as though debate and deliberation in the Senate would be much more coherent among 26 or even 40 people than 100.
How much has the size of the Legislature worried people over the years, and have there ever been efforts to merge/consolidate states?
question prompted by How American Politics Went Insane: It happened gradually—and until the U.S. figures out how to treat the problem, it will only get worse.
The Senate has always been the smaller of the two legislatures. While their numbers have increased, the House of Representatives has increased at much faster pace, with state representation being tied to population as opposed to the states as equals approach of the senate. The article you gave gives a little look into the basics of the organization of legislatures and political parties that help keep order.
That being said, there have been concerns with the amount of legislatures in the House of Representatives and this culminated with a total of 435 (433 for the existing states and one each for both Arizona and New Mexico when they gain statehood) set by the Apportionment Act of 1911 and cemented as the permanent limit to be reapportioned with the decennial census with the Reapportionment Act of 1929 (Sec. 22).
I hope this helps!