The higher ed system that boomers and Gen X had did not overburden students with debt and could be solved by small sacrifices - like eating ramen noodles and living with roommates for a few years out of college or graduate school. As result, boomers and Gen X had more freedom to take risks and make mistakes in their youth and more opportunity to explore different career paths. Millennials and Gen Z, unless the system changes, will have to pay much more to obtain their educations than prior generations and their opportunities and freedom to fail will be highly restricted. Is this fair? Hell no. More importantly, is this dumb policy? Hell yes. We are just starting to see the negative ramifications of unaffordable higher education costs and gigantic student loan debt: delayed home buying, delayed marriage, less children, less wealth building, less opportunity, less social advancement, more insecurity, more inequality, and more anger. When you combine these macro problems with our nation's DIY retirement system, it is truly a recipe for the erosion of the middle class and eventual financial disaster.
I don't want to argue too much about your basic premise that unaffordable higher education is a problem - it totally is. But your details of Gen X really don't match my experience, and it's something that I think someone below has mentioned.
I ate ramen noodles and mac and cheese. Unlike some, I lived on campus (couldn't convince roommates to move off campus, which was cheaper). I always had roommates.
I did not own a car until I graduated and got a job. And it was a small used car with no AC (I should have thought that through, as I was moving to DC).
I worked. I worked every summer (the first summer, 60 hours a week at two jobs). I worked 5 out of 8 semesters. I worked on my winter breaks (back to bagging groceries).
I had roommates after college - first, renting a cold basement that was never warmer than 58 degrees.
(I was also in the military. I was a poor kid, and it was the best way to pay for college. My classmates who were not in the military had similar experiences however.)
I only had my own studio apartment for 2.5 years total. Then I got married.
My husband opted for grad school on the 7 year plan. So I worked, he went to school, and we had one car.
We didn't buy a house until our mid-30s.
We didn't have kids until mid-30s to mid-40s.
When I look at the millenials that I have worked with their experiences are...similar, really. Same amount of penny pinching, same amount of ramen noodles. Same delay in home buying and children (though the savvier ones are ahead on that).
The difference that I see is that a college degree is almost a requirement for a decent "middle class white collar" job. So while my sister works as an office manager, that's a job that requires a degree now. So there are *more* students going into debt. In my circle, it was uncommon to borrow a lot of money for a degree, unless you were getting a STEM degree. If you wanted a non-STEM degree, you worked to pay for it, or your parents paid for it, or the military paid for it. A lot of people just didn't get degrees.
And this degree requirement is something that is affecting the late boomers and early X-ers - a lot. I have a number of friends and coworkers from my age (mid 40s) till mid-50s. Without degrees. They have a lot of experience. Get laid off? Good luck getting a new job. Most companies require a degree. Given a choice between a 50-year old with 30 years experience and a 30 year old with a degree? 80% of the time, that 50 year old's resume doesn't even make it to the hiring manager's desk. Then it's years of unemployment or under employment. That's no fun for sure.