It would be nice to think that committees would be freed from the pressures of democratic accountability and could finally make the enlightened decisions they h

It would be nice to think that committees would be freed from the pressures of democratic accountability and could finally make the enlightened decisions they had always been yearning for, but I don't think that is the most likely outcome. Instead you would likely see the dominant party passing extreme legislation on 51/49 majorities, with every politician being able to claim that actually they were a centrist and they voted against the legislation (and it must have been disloyal members of the other party that enabled the vote to pass). In fact, the veil of secrecy might even allow members of a minority party to claim that they are against some extreme policy, but actually collude with a faction from the majority party to narrowly pass it, either because it benefits the politicians themselves (at the expense of their voters) or because the extreme outcome would motivate their supporters to re-elect them.