I think so. It's funny, despite having a relatively damn good career without a degree, I still get constant grief from friends and family. There probably hasn't been a single family visit since leaving home where someone hasn't asked me when I'm going back to college. Even after explaining that it makes no financial sense to put myself into >$100k debt, the degree comes out as more important than anything else.

It's not something I really know how to explain, except that the modern expectation of "established person" is someone with a degree. So until that expectation goes away,it seems we're going to be culturally stuck here for a while.

/anecdote