For the record, I’m not American nor live in the US, but I have a 19-year-old son who started attending the University of Chicago this year, studying economics. Just the tuition itself is $70k. My husband and I are lucky enough to be able to afford it - I still believe it’s an outrageous amount of money to attend college.
Student loans have dulled price-point as a major consideration for choosing a school. So they compete on other non-academic stuff that tends to raise the tuition like sports, amenities, and prestige.