What has changed is the amount of student loan money available and how it needs to be paid back.

Student loan money availability is only being made available because students are seen as a good financial investment. And that's because college education yields higher salaries in the private sector.

Since student loan money is very easy to get, the prices of everything at a university have skyrocketed.

Private university tuition has far outpaced public university tuition, particularly in areas of the country where demand for public education is eclipsed by open seats at public universities. Students afforded low-cost public education don't take on student debt, regardless of its availability.

Since student loan debt needs to be paid, only education tracks that lead to landing a job matter

That plays into a myth about education tracks as related to "landing a job", when pretty much any basic degree plan - from English Lit to Comp Sci - gives you a better job prospect and higher future salary expectations than no-degree. Even bearing in mind the cost of servicing the debt, you're better off completing a degree plan (or vocational program) than going directly into the workforce with merely a diploma.

Where people get fucked is in taking on debt, failing to complete the degree. At that point, they're in the worst of both worlds. Or taking on private university debts that far outstrip what a public university would charge. The really nasty for-profit colleges love to lard you up with six figures of debt and plow the profits back into a blizzard of marketing.

But that has far less to do with available student debt (for-profits are more than happy to take the backend risk on loans and simply hound you with collectors) and more to do with predatory private for-profit schools specifically and weed-out courses in public universities generally.