What has changed is the amount of state funding to public universities, and the resulting tuition increases to make up that shortfall in revenue.
You who went to college in the 1970s and walked away with very little to no student debt were the recipients of massive government subsidies for your tuition. Don't blame guaranteed student loans, or greedy universities, or undisciplined spending. You can either blame state legislatures or praise them for shifting more of the burden of an education away from the taxpayer and onto the student.
