I graduated from college in 1979, had a family, had a job, went to night school, paid for my courses as I went along, and didn’t owe a penny to anyone when I walked to my car after my last class. That was a 4-year degree at night. Didn’t owe a penny.
Then all of a sudden up comes government loans and all kinds of crap started: increased tuitions, 4-year degrees became 5 year degrees, etc.
I graduated from a state college in Washington in 1975. Tuition my first year was under $450 for the year. By the time I graduated it was up to about $600 for the year. Room and board was under $1,000; and the food was excellent.
Another trend is to push many high school courses to the college level. The increased costs of the same course was justified by easing the requirements for a H.S. diploma.
Somehow, that makes sense to a liberal.