The degree may get you the first interview for some positions, and there are still fields where a degree is required. But you are exactly right that for much of the US the focus on getting that piece of paper has driven its value down to the point where just having a degree is not worth much of anything. It has always been true that a student gets out of college what they put into it, put in the effort and you have a chance to learn quite a bit, put that same effort into parties and you may come out of college with a degree and the skills to be a bartender. Not that being a bartender is a bad thing, I suspect they are more employable than some of the engineers I knew back in school.