Skip the whole life - a good portion of your premium pays commission to the agent. That is why it is sold and not bought.
Keep your insurance and investments separate.
All life insurance policies pay a commission to the agent. The premium for whole life is bigger, but the commissions are smaller. As an example, commission on a term product might be 100% of the first year premium, while on whole life it may only be 55-65% with 3-10% renewals for the first 10 years. Contrary to popular belief, the agent's job is not done after the policy is sold. There is a lot of post-issue work when things need to be changed that the agent gets paid nothing additional for. A lawyer will charge you $500 to walk in his office and review a document. An insurance agent will spend hours and hours re-working your policy changes (beneficiary change, payment changes, assignments, etc) and not charge you a dime.
To answer the question, in my opinion, it is a good idea to have the death benefit you need today covered with term insurance, but to still have some permanent insurance as a "safety net" in case you outlive the term and still need coverage. As an example, if your total coverage needs are $1 million, you may consider $900k of term and $100k of permanent. While the term is active, you have $1 million of coverage. After the term expires, you still have $100k "just in case." It will always be much cheaper to buy the coverage when you are young and healthy than when you are older and have health issues that will put you into a less favorable risk class.
Now, this is an early retirement forum, so most people here believe you won't need the permanent by the time you reach retirement age, but your average person usually still does. You may also want to consider guaranteed universal life (GUL) as an alternative to whole life. The cost is much lower (premiums will be 40-60% less) and the death benefits are guaranteed for life. It will never generate the cash value like whole life will and you can basically think about it as term insurance with a premium guaranteed for life. A lot of my clients will buy a GUL policy that is set up to be "paid up" at age 65 so that when they hit retirement, they no longer need to keep paying premiums, but the death benefit is locked in forever. As an example, a 36 year old in perfect health can get $100,000 of GUL paid up for life at age 65 for only $590 per year. A "20-pay" would be $690 per year for 20 years. A "10-pay" would be $1,125 per year for 10 years.