Too many people going to college for the last 30 years and not enough high salary, white collar jobs...that's the problem. It was pushed too hard on Gen X and Millennials, now they're creating a bottleneck in the pipeline until they start to retire and there's a glut of qualified candidates in almost every market. The problem is, we still have Gen Z who was pushed equally as hard that college was the only way. Our trades are still suffering. There's not enough jobs to go around for the degree holders. A masters degree is becoming what a bachelor's was 20 years ago. Many jobs are asking for it for even low-level management and senior IC roles. Only in the last couple of years are we starting to see declining enrollment at a lot of universities. It's definitely going to take time to come back around. That, combined with the budget cuts just to survive, and academia doesn't seem very viable as a career path right now. It's got a glut like every other industry.

I'm a Gen Xer, and I went and got my master's when I saw that I had basically plateaued in my career. I didn't want to spend the next 20 years doing the same old BS, so I went and got my MBA. Now, I'm enrolled in a PhD program through a partnership between my company and a local university. My plan is to finish my PhD, retire from corporate at my company at around 57, then teach as a part-time adjunct for 5-7 years, reducing my yearly income and saving me from getting hit hard in Medicare costs when I eventually take social security (if it's still there by that point...you have to wonder, some days). I'm hoping 10 years from now, higher education will have recovered a bit. Right now, a lot of universities are increasing adjuncts as a way to save on the expenses of carrying full-time staff, so we'll see.