Related to your second and third points, I think there is at least some case that the U.S. has moved away from the idea of liberal arts schooling towards being more vocationally minded. The intent, going back as far as the mid-1800s with the Morrill Act, was specifically intended to help serve a new growing economy.
If you ask, I bet more people look at college as a way to get a job than to learn to appreciate and contribute to culture
At first blush, I would guess we have a slightly less capitalistic society than, say 200 years ago, but a more industrialized, consumeristic society.
Ironically, in such societies, people will latch on to anything that provides stability. For example, vocational degree that signals high skills or petitioning for NIMBY laws.
The reason people latch on to these is simple. There is too much to lose. The crash is too deep. If one loses a job, they lose healthcare. Not because of shortages like 200 years ago, but because of the extreme capitalism taking over healthcare, incentivizing providers and insurance companies to lobby for shitty laws instead of true competition.
1) American school education, and college education is amazing. ( if you can afford it). Talk to immigrant parents From other countries for a contra point. Crushing the soul of students isn’t fully installed in America, yet (which brings us to point 2)
2) It’s the economy. At some point, the American economy stopped working as well for blue collar roles as paths to middle class incomes.
The new path required white collar credibility. Humans naturally optimized for this. Which brings us to The fundamental conflict for American education, that gets distorted depending on how you enter the discussion.
3) the American liberal arts system, produced great intellectual output, for an economy where you could pursue both intellectual limits and get a decent paying job. The number of people entering were small, and you could lavish your attention on those pursuits.
It does not work for a majority of America customers/students who simply want credibility when it comes to entering paths to social mobility, and are not interested in a life of intellectual pursuit.
Look, colleges and schools have different problems, but for businesses, a degree has become the basic filter, where it was never meant to be.
Moocs simply don’t have the credibility to fill in the gap, and you can’t make a github or deviantart for roles which don’t have a standardized output.