It's all due to the "education bubble".
First there is the financial bubble that has fueled the cost of a college education many times the rate of inflation. Easy-to-get student loans are the primary fuel of for this bubble; practically identical to the phenomenon behind the housing bubble. Universities are then free to continually raise the price of admission as the subsidies available keep pace in lock-step. There's no pressure to contain costs when you can so easily raise your selling price.
Second phenomenon fueling the bubble is the fact that a bachelor's degree is now a standard requirement for practically all white-collar jobs, and even many blue-collar jobs. High school diplomas have been meaningless for generations now. Also, since "intelligence tests" by employers were universally outlawed by the early '70s, employers now rely upon colleges to do this filtering for them.
My unpopular but ultimately successful solution for both problems is to stop subsidizing student loans. The same politicians that go on rampages against opportunistic "payday" type loans that exploit and entrap people desperate and poor at math celebrate and wish to expand student loans which do the very same thing, only for longer and are literally inescapable. (since unlike a payday loan, you can't bankrupt out of a student loan) Listen to an hour of any financial advice show, and you will eventually hear a call from some poor soul who brainlessly spent 6-figures to get a job that pays in the low 5-figures. Permanent poverty, and slavery.
Once we stop the subsidies, universities will be forced to lower costs and implement more efficient and effective means to deliver their product. Until then, little will change. And why should it?
