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It wasn’t so long ago that this was true.  I think 24-hour news channels/cable news/the 24-hour news cycle pretty much killed off the type of in-depth reporting that would actually lead to career consequences down the line.
The Senate ethics handbook states that “staff are compensated for the purpose of assisting Senators in their official legislative and representational duties, and not for the purpose of performing personal or other non-official activities for themselves or on behalf of others.”
Craig Holman, a congressional ethics expert with the nonprofit group Public Citizen, said Sinema’s apparent demands that staffers conduct personal tasks amount to a clear violation of Senate ethics rules, and would typically warrant a formal reprimand by the Senate Ethics Committee. >

Oh no. Not a toothless reprimand! >

I imagine that in a bygone era where people at least pretended to have character, such a publicly embarrassing thing would have had career consequences down the line.