Oxbridge, the Russell group and a handful of other institutions are setting ever higher entry requirements and looking to break away from the existing system by promoting the IB or new qualifications like the Cambridge Pre-U. They have no qualms about stating that A-Level syllabuses are being dumbed down. Oxford and Cambridge maintain lists of A-level subjects that they do not recognise. Most of their prospective intake comes from independent, grammar and wealthier comprehensive schools with the resources and confidence to guide students towards the right qualifications (increasingly something other than A-levels) and coach them through application and interview.
Most other universities are engaged in a mad rush to the bottom, competing to fill the maximum number of places at the maximum fee at minimum cost. Their main appeal is to working and lower-middle class students who may not be confident in their ability to get a place at university, who are unlikely to have received any useful guidance in their application and who are foolish enough to believe that "a degree is a degree". Standards at secondary level are falling, as are contact hours at most universities. With a strong financial incentive to maximise intake, the results are obvious and inevitable.
The reputation of these universities is plummeting amongst employers, who are seeing increasing numbers of graduates and even postgraduates without basic skills in reading and writing. This is not hyperbole - I regularly deal with correspondence from recent graduates and often have to make follow-up phone calls because their written English incomprehensible.
Crisis is too mild a word for the current state of HE.