I'm not going to doubt that... I'm just saying there must be some underlying economic reason why that's true. Seems that things are in an equilibrium, but maybe not the optimal one (blasphemy, I know).

The reason is no longer true but it was true that corporations needed more educated workers to perform certain tasks and college graduates were relatively rare. Most of the college graduates in my parents' generation were gainfully employed consistently in my childhood. That is definitely not the case among my college educated peers today. Many are underemployed and in debt.

Some of the issue is that people are chasing the economic signals from an age past where the conditions were just different.

It's okay, so long as people behave rationally equilibrium will come ;).

Good news, everyone! Real people are predictably irrational!