It sure wasn't like this for our parents. The UC system was close to free in the 60s. Portland State University's very first summer session was $50 for tuition and fees. Universities supported simply by taxes, not a byzantine system of public and private loans (still backed by the government, of course), like is common in other Western nations.

I'm 100% in on getting the government out of the lending business and back into the "higher ed is a public good" business. I'd rather they just return the actual sticker price to what it was a generation ago, and make it realistic for people to work student jobs to earn the cost of their tuition.