I always thought the issue was in admin body count. However, just picking the largest universities in Germany and US on wikipedia we see:
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Academic staff: 5,565 Administrative staff: 8,208 Students: 51,606
Michigan State University Academic staff: 5,703 Administrative staff: 7,365 Students: 49,809
Those look pretty comparable, so what is going on?
Stanford University, for example: Academic staff: 2,279; Administrative staff: 15,314, Students: 17,246 - that's basically 1:1
A less prestigious private university like University of Southern California: Academic staff: 4,706; Administrative staff: 16,614; Students: 49,318 - that's about 1:2.5
You have to really break down the administrative staff number (if that's what's of concern here) to see what people are doing to make an informed argument (not saying you are making an uninformed argument or anything like that).
-edit-
For a while I was in on the administrative staff thing and I certainly think there is bloat and just flat out incompetence at many universities in this area, but I also think it's a bit of a red herring to avoid other issues like funding reductions, etc.
The way student loans are structured is the cause.