> The nominees for higher office are now chosen by popular primaries rather than by the party machine in a “smoke-filled room” for the Republican Party perhaps

> The nominees for higher office are now chosen by popular primaries rather than by the party machine in a “smoke-filled room” for the Republican Party perhaps (assuming you trust the integrity of their primaries)—the Democratic Party (highly ironically, given their name) has a "superdelegates" system that means in practice that the nominees for President are in fact chosen by "the party machine in a 'smoke-filled room'".