Not all of West has it this way. US and UK yes, but rest of EU mostly has free college in same or higher quality.
My wife did almost the exact same thing. She has a small amount of debt, (15k) but that's mostly because she has 3 degrees, including a masters.
We've both been happily employed since.
Long story short: I think the "American University Debt Crisis" is largely overstated. I relate it to the housing crisis in 2008. Yes it was shitty for mortgage lenders to be giving out those loans to those people, but at the same time, you as an individual have to stop and think at some point and say "OK, I am a strawberry farmer that makes 30k a year, what business do I have buying a 500k house?"
You as an individual need to use some critical thinking and say, "OK my family / I make only X amount a year, what businesses do I have racking up 40-50k in student debt every year? Are there alternatives?"
The answer to the question "are there quality alternatives to simply racking up debt I will never be able to pay back and still be able to get an education?" is yes.
I should edit this to say: the debt crisis is real now because a large majority of these students did in fact take the loans and now have the debt. What I mean, however, is this "fact" that you must go into lifelong crippling debt to get a quality education is overstated.
A: that works 25 hours+ while studying at a school chosen because of its price or B: that study at a school that fits what is best for B and gets money from the school?
Now you might believe the system A uses is fine, but which country do you think will be ahead in 10 or even 50 years?
It also makes almost zero difference at the end, no one will care if your electives comes from a community college if they care about your degree at all.
In a country-side suburb here in my state, we have one of the (to my surprise) largest clusters of aerospace engineering companies (I believe over 20+) -- they receive over 80% of their candidates from the regional community college nearby. If you think about it it makes sense for the employer: they get to work with the college to basically create a curriculum that will ensure their future prospects have the highest chance of being the best workers for them.
The universities grow huge marketing and managing administrations while teaching is lacking even often money to pay some student to check the sheets and research is solely dependend on 3rd party funding.
Even if you have access and funding for equipment there are no funds to pay someone for maintenance or making good use of the equipment.
Some PhD that were not quick enough to deny any involvement are doing the job or clueless student assistants that are left alone.
Plagiarism is also rampant and most students avoid any extra work/activities at all costs. Suing for better grades is also not uncommon.
Research often turns into pushing out publications and papers at all costs and is more like an art to defend your own existence than acknowledging or understanding the problem domain.
Luckily not everywhere but I've heard that more than once and confirm it for my uni.