I see it as the natural consequence of the shift in mindset as to the primary beneficiary of a college education that happened during the Reagan era. It may see

I see it as the natural consequence of the shift in mindset as to the primary beneficiary of a college education that happened during the Reagan era. It may seem bizarre to us now but, prior to that, students having a college education was viewed as being beneficial to society first and to the student second. And the funding model where states paid for almost everything followed from that. But once you make the mental leap from it being about a public good to it being about an individual good, the arbitrage starts, just as it does for any item where the cost is significantly below its value. Colleges would have faced a massive backlash if they'd tried to just adjust directly to the point of equilibrium, so they've been moving to that point over the past ~30 years.