As departing senators said their goodbyes to Washington, a number of Democrats and Republicans took the opportunity to express concern about the state of the Senate and the political climate.

"All the evidence points to an unsettling truth: The Senate as an institution is in crisis," retiring Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah lamented in his farewell speech delivered on the Senate floor.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, who was defeated in the November midterm elections, echoed that idea when she delivered her own farewell speech. "I'd be lying if I didn't say I was worried about this place," she said. "It just doesn't work as well as it used to."

"Something is broken," the Missouri Democrat went on to say. "If we don't have the strength to look in the mirror and fix it, the American people are going to grow more and more cynical."

As senators who were either ousted in the elections or decided to retire and not seek another term reflected on their time in Congress, many expressed dismay at how divided Washington has become as lawmakers retreat to entrenched partisan positions that leave little room for compromise or common ground.

Most of them spoke in the final weeks of the year, a time largely overshadowed by a flurry of last-minute legislative activity and an unsuccessful effort to stave off a partial government shutdown. But the shuttering of roughly 25% of the federal government appeared to help illustrate a common sentiment conveyed during many of these farewell speeches: that something would need to change for Washington to function properly.

'This is not a normal time'

McCaskill and Hatch weren't the only ones sounding alarm bells.

"To say that our politics is not healthy is somewhat of an understatement," retiring Sen. Jeff Flake said in his farewell speech. "I believe that we all know well that this is not a normal time and that the threats to our democracy from within and without are real."

The Arizona Republican, a frequent critic of President Donald Trump, went beyond a critique of American politics to say he believes an "authoritarian impulse" is experiencing a resurgence worldwide and that the "global commitment to democracy seems now to be on somewhat shaky ground."

But while departing senators had unique messages to impart, the overarching idea that there's a problem with the current state of politics was a consistent theme.

"What in the world has happened to civility and to humility in our nation's public discourse?" Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat who lost his seat in the midterms, asked in his farewell speech.

"Tribalism is our problem, and if not corrected, it's going to take our country down," he warned. (CNN)

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