Prior to and into the 1970's it was possible for students to "work their way through school." Perhaps this wasn't the case with private institutions but most certainly it was with most state sponsored high enducation facilities. Back then the majority of funding for State Universities and Colleges came from the State which drove down the cost of tuition and fees. Individuals could work full time during the summer and with part time salaries be able to afford tuition each semester. This started changing around the mid seventies when states started cutting back their high education budget allocation. The rest is pretty much as it is defined above.
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I do want to point out that while yes, Generation Y has had it tough, their challenges with unemployment and college debt wast not a recent occurance. In fact, while the cost of tuition has continually increased, the interest on student loans has remained relatively low in comparison to the first part of the 21st century. With all of the economy boom of the later half of the Clinton years came historically high interest rates on college tuition. The cusp generation left college with almost equal college debt to what is experienced now by Millennials while also having interest rates above 8%. I graduated in 2000 and due to an in accident 2003, I was unable to work for almost 3 years. I had to hold college loan payments and I wasn't even able to afford interest rate payments to keep the loans at the same level. BY the time I was healthy enough to start working, I owed significantly more given that my consolidated rate was 8.5% which I still have to this day. I came out of college owing 40K. I'd kill for the rates that graduates have today.
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