You nailed it. The primary reason colleges/universities are increasingly providing a worthless product, yet keep increasing in cost, is that third party financing makes it possible for students who otherwise couldn’t afford the outrageous tuition to pay it anyway. If colleges had to compete in a real market, where they were forced to price their product according to what prospective students could actually afford to pay out of their own pockets, things would change substantially.
A real market is emerging, foreign universities. Many are beginning to offer all-English programs, and they aren’t all that expensive.
If I were in high school today, I’d seriously consider it, I’d even go as far as to say studying overseas will give you an edge in the job market.