The college degree requirements are for white collar jobs that have yet to be automated. The increasing competition is due to the internet drastically increasing applicants beyond the supply. Hence companies find it easy to discriminate.

It has nothing to do with automation here, it's actually everyone's fault here in starting a race to the bottom. Personally I'd rather do a lottery after basic competence but that's more of a regulation issue.

If SWE were to fully automated, I'd be busy running my own startup to implement all the ideas in my head. I think many also would. As a result, there would a boom of startups and an increase of job demand for lawyers, IBs or accountants. That's the thing with automation, as it improves the cost of running a business should decrease proportionally that everyone could eventually transition to the capitalist class themselves. Those who aren't would be working lucrative jobs.