I wouldn’t say more affordable. What the government did was make large sums of credit available to 18 year olds who unwisely indebted themselves for degrees (or worse the “college experiences”) that often do not pay off.
Sorry, my “Affordable” was tongue-in-cheek, satire. Whenever the government gets involved, things get thoroughly fouled up. The worst is when the government says they are going to make something “affordable.” The price to the consumer ALWAYS soars after they do that. No exceptions.
As you say, nearly “free” money to pay for college means lots of people who should be nowhere near a college (no aptitude, poor grades, no ambition, no desire) went to college and got useless degrees that didn’t require much work. The government claiming that “everybody needs a college degree” made it even worse.
When there was no federal money in colleges, campuses were austere and rather spartan. The people who went to college found a way to pay for it and they got degrees in subjects that paid off.