Part of it is definitely their own fault - as I’m sure plenty here will note.
Part of it is also the ever rising cost of college due to government interference in the market (guaranteed student loans) and colleges adding ever more bureaucrats (diversity director anyone?) and just jacking up prices since they can.
Part of it is also THE worst economy in 3 generations that we truly only started recovering from in the Fall of 2017 after the Obama administration’s idiotic policies made it far longer and far worse than it otherwise would have been.
Millennial here, your 3rd Point really hits the mark. Myself and many others wanted to earn a better life, get a better job, Etc. But because of Obama policies that made it much harder, It’s not impossible for the country to recover financially to where it should have been and was stuck working low-wage and she’s a whole jobs for several years longer than they should have been is next to impossible to catch up to a level where is their parents would have been at that point in their life. The smart ones consideration and didn’t waste money and probably budgeted, the other ones are the ones who are really in trouble.