People want to blame tenure. That's dumb. I can do without tenure, but that isn't what's causing the drift. As Richard Vetter shows in "Going Broke by Degree," the problem is that 60% or MORE of college students now are on some sort of "aid" which is really just redistribution of the entire pool of money. So students pay (in reality) $17,000, get "rebates" or aid of $7-10,000, and think they are getting a deal, when in reality the education only COSTS $7,000, and if you got rid of all the administrative departments that are engaged in a) recruitment and b) redistribution, you'd HAVE a college ed. for $7,000-10,000, i.e., one that is affordable to almost any students.
and if you got rid of all the administrative departments that are engaged in a) recruitment and b) redistribution,
Don't forget the cost of diversification. Diversification is the goal of every college president, not excellence!
I went to a private college that currently charges $36,000 for tuition, room and board. This is a college that produces more future PhDs per capita than all but two other colleges in the country. In my humble opinion, the expense is worth it because of the extraordinary opportunity for learning that exists at a college with a traditional great-books curriculum and a serious, intellectual culture. And it happens that at least half the students at this college have financial aid, often lots of it (I certainly did in my day).
However -- you can get a decent education for < $4,000 a year (tuition) where I hold tenure as an associate professor of math, a regional campus of a well-known public university. You're on your own to seek out the degree programs with real content and substance (we offer plenty of content-free fluff degrees such as the dreaded "bachelors in general studies" that hundreds of our students opt for). But we do have quality programs taught by professors who love learning and teaching.