Yes, social engineering is a big part; but not the only part. During the boom days leading up to the Bush/Obama depression, law schools were big business and cash cows. Even though the economy crashed, law schools still have to pay their bills, which means they are filling seats with a lower intellect students — of all races and ethnicities. From the early 70s until recently, underqualified applicants got into law school because of social engineering. Now they get in because of the economic needs of the law school.
I worked for a lot of lawyers and often wondered how hard could law school be.
The problem starts long before law school or even college. As long as government is in charge of most schools, education in the US will continue to decline in quality and increase in cost. Many schools are mere propaganda mills and very little real learning takes place there.