In most dishwashers, I don't think the water is supposed to be covering the heating element. I went through the same thing when I was having a problem with my GE profile. I found a repair advice place on the web where it said it;s normal for water to be close to, but not covering the hit heating element. If it heats the water while it's flowing, it doesn't need to be immersed. It really doesn't take much water in these for the pump to operate. Do you hear the normal sound of water spraying around? If you really thing that is the problem, place a glass in the upper tray. It should fill with water in 60 secs (think that is right, could be 30) See how much water goes into it. Then you can stop the cycle, add more water with a pot, restart the test. I'm sure you'll find the rate of water flow is the same.
That was not the problem with mine when all of a sudden it wasn't cleaning correctly. If you search on the web, you can probably find the same info. I definitely think you're barking up the wrong tree. With mine, it worked fine till all of a sudden dishes were coming out not totally clean. And the food left on was not particularly hard to get off. First I thought it might be loading, but after several times, it was clear something else was going on.
So, I wound up taking it out, thinking something must be wrong with the pump, like the impeller was slipping or something. I took that sucker all apart and all I found was a little bit of paper in the filter, also some in one tip of the upper spray nozzle. Looked like it could have been some of those little labels from fresh vegetables. Certainly not enough to account for what was going on. Put it back together, and it's been running fine ever since.
I would go to one of the appliance repair sites on the web. They have parts diagrams that show how its all put together, so you can figure out where the filters are. They have to have them to catch dirt, prior to it being sent out into the waste. Mine are under the lower spray arm, which comes off so you can get to them.