I think that what's needed is a separation of concerns. Instead of a monolithic institution that is responsible for research, student enlightenment, self-discovery, vocational training, athletic competition, etc, we could move towards a micro-institution architecture and scale the different micro-institutions according to demand. Importantly, we wouldn't cross-subsidize the institutions, so if someone only wanted self-discovery for example, they could just pay for that and get a cheaper price than someone who wanted both self-discovery and vocational training. People could also decide how much of each they need according to their circumstances.

The article only mentions tuition once - which is the original sin of US universities.

I have generally found that US Americans don't really understand the incredible value that these institutions bring to the overall culture and economy. Thus the broader population has a will to critique but no will to improve the situation.

Solving the problems is like doing a kata in martial arts: It’s not the result, it’s the steps you take that change your mind.

That’s what I told students, when I taught physics for several years during my PhD.

Even back then you could look up solution templates for most of the problems: There are only so many educative small problems that first semester students can solve.

On the other hand: No one studies physics just for a degree and money. So maybe that problem is not as present there, as it is elsewhere.

the article describes a larger, more general problem that happens when a society can no longer deal with, or export it's contradictions, of which we have an ever growing mountain of absurditys, overseen by an entrenched army of incompetent assholes and idiots, ready to performativly weild there specific NO power, while meticulously observing the theatric rituals assosiated with there positions.

In an interesting collision, I saw this article, _The University after AI_, at the same time I was reading The Atlantic article ( https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=7453440 pdf downloadable) . It covers much the same ground from an academic economic framework, describing the University of a platform/market maker connecting 15 different entities (student, faculty, employers, donors, researcher, ...).

And proposed some restructured institutions, but also saying that solutions were likely to be greenfield rather than changing existing model with the intwined revenue streams and battle inherent in change.