Just demonstrably untrue. The cost of running schools has been affected by three things:
1) state support declining decade over decade
2) simple supply and demand (more kids want to go to college, partially because of federal student aid availability; schools need to spend to compete for students and to accommodate bigger enrollments with facilities, faculty and staff)
3) inflation
Sure, there are awful predatory for-profit institutions, but you're just wrong about the rest.
My four years at Wake cost a total of $10,000. 50 years of inflation makes that $75,000 for 4 years in 2022 dollars. Cost of attendance (per WFU) is $83,000 for the 2022-2023 year alone.