PAXOS is very complicated, Raft is direct response to it by simplifying the consensus algorithm. From the article:

  "It's equivalent to Paxos in fault-tolerance and performance. The difference is that it's decomposed into relatively independent subproblems, and it cleanly addresses all major pieces needed for practical systems."

One of the authors of Raft is Prof. John Ousterhout(TCL creator, among other things)

Yes. They even reference it on their website:

"Raft is a consensus algorithm that is designed to be easy to understand. It's equivalent to Paxos in fault-tolerance and performance. The difference is that it's decomposed into relatively independent subproblems, and it cleanly addresses all major pieces needed for practical systems."