In 1920, only 4.5 percent of white Americans had college degrees and only 22 percent had high school diplomas. I don't think people appreciate what a profound change this is. nces.ed.gov/programs/diges
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Like our great-grandparents grew up in a world where getting a high school diploma made you middle class and going to college made you a member of society's educational elite.
Today college is far less powerful as a way of cementing your place in the social and economic hierarchy. Not because there's anything wrong with college but it's just not mathematically possible for almost half of society to enjoy a dramatically above-average standard of living.
I think this shift has also had big implications for politics. College graduates used to be such a small share of the population that they were almost irrelevant for winning elections.
Politicians might hire college graduates to advise them but they had to pander heavily to non-college voters to win elections. Now college graduates are a big enough voting block that it's easier for them to forget that they're still in the minority.