For decades, the standard line has been “you go to college to learn how to learn.” And high school and education leading up to it has been seen as preparation for college.

Not to mention “college isn’t a trade school”, “if you want your CS program to teach you how to program, go to a boot camp”, and so on.

The "standard line" has been, "go to college so you can get a job"

And that's what's chured out record levels of student debt, pointless degrees, and infantilized "adults"

That's the standard line from society of how college works in practice. But the colleges, nay universities, themselves have always been hesitant to become job-creation factories. They are not vocational schools.

Meanwhile, vocational schools and community colleges in the U.S. are considered low-prestige by both industry employers and American society itself, despite less likely to result in high student debt and perhaps fewer pointless degrees.

Just complete lack of coordination from different segments of society, and misaligned incentives across the board.

That's a very US-centric view, which really points out how terrible US schools really are.

It also points out how the tech industry, and perhaps other private sectors, has completely abdicated its responsibility in the proper training of its new workers. Which it used to do decades ago, but now has outsourced it to universities.