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I believe there were four critical factors that pushed the US down that road:
"Sputnik"and "Civil Rights" and "Viet Nam" and "Cancer"
Before the 60's and after WW II, the G.I. Bill made college accessible for all veterans.
With very exceptions this remains true even now.
Sputnik put an enormous amount of government $ into college and university systems
Not just for engineers, but for all the sciences and general education.
Before Civil Rights, the US had a long history of educational segregation.
The HBCU's were the only institutions available for most
black students.... all the most so for poor, black students.
Opening all colleges and universities set off the ugly debates
about "quotas" and "reverse discrimination" and "un-qualified"
students that continues to this day.
Viet Nam deferments and percent of non-whites "in country" were matters of life and death.
Cancer, like sputnik, changed the entire structure of government-funded research,
primarily in medical sciences (NIH), but for most other granting agencies and foundations.
The sum of these four is that the better (non-MacD) jobs now require paper credentials.
Unfortunately, the 4-yr and graduate degree have less meaning as evidence of learning.
They are the union-card necessary (but not sufficient) to get past the employer's receptionist.
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