IMO, from what I saw while I was in the belly of beast, there are three kinds of colleges...
Diploma Mills - think, pretty much any college that you see frequent ads for on TV. They're largely dependent on gov't money, and as that dries up (which it is...) they'll go away (which they are). Not a bad thing, they're largely irrelevant, except to the thousands of people who are snookered into giving them money each year.
Smaller "safety" private schools and non-flagship state schools - think "State U at Podunk" ... Lots of these out there. Those that specialize - think "State U at Podunk has the best Abnormal Psyche program in the US", might do OK. For others, I was amazed at the number of faculty and staff who had no concept of "Zero Dollars" and for who a budget was something accounting complained about once a year. Those clueless schools will go into the brick wall like a dart, and wonder what happened.
Flagship State schools and Top Privates? I talked about those above. They'll be leaner and will suffer a lot of pain but ultimately will come out OK.
No matter what, changes will take a long time to see. Everything is on a four year cycle - minimum - and frankly, I doubt WBill Jr will even see major changes from the model that I attended. Change will come, but will be ponderously slow.
And you're right about the "not incurring 100K Debt...". Again, just IMO, people learning a trade will make more money, more quickly. The top end for people with four year degrees *in a valued discipline, not XXXXX Studies* ... might have a higher top end, but in a longer time frame and with more risk attached.
So, the question becomes, "Is it better to make 30-45K as a welder out of school right now with not a whole lot of movement up.... or *maybe* start at the bottom and wind up at 90-110K as an engineer in 10 years, provided you don't screw up, get outsourced, make good decisions, etc, etc etc...."
There are a few degrees that lead to a fairly reliable payback. A nursing degree or engineering degree will fairly reliably lead to a higher standard of living, especially if you can graduate without taking loans.
A degree not associated with a specific career path generally is just a check box for promotion at some point but does not necessary lead to a higher standard of living. It will probably lead to a slightly higher standard of living at some point if there are no student loans to pay off. Combining one of these low performing degrees with a large student loan will pretty much guarantee a lower standard of living. Getting that degree at a private university and paying with borrowed money is down right self-destructive unless you happen to be a trust baby.
My boy joined the military and is getting an engineering degree without taking loans, I think he will be OK.