I'd say it's the banks/banking system. They skew the market and give money to the people from their own future. If this was impossible education simply couldn't

I'd say it's the banks/banking system. They skew the market and give money to the people from their own future. If this was impossible education simply couldn't be that expensive and perhaps only possible by paying it from taxes (which is money that does not require a "bank-owning elite fee" in the form of rent) and naturally limited to what a country can produce in the now instead of in some possible future that may or may not come to pass. Banks allow for an inefficient, non market driven educational system. Banks, as they are now, are not part of the free market, they even needed saving using public money instead of letting market forces decide their fate.