Too lazy to read the whole thread – apologies if this was covered.
One factor I’ve heard is the ever-increasing disparity between rich and not rich (itself largely a result of right-wing tax policy and associated cultural shifts). 20 years ago, people with professional educations saw that their upside potential income in the private sector was significantly higher than in education, but this was offset by prestige, the social importance of teaching as a career, less stressful working conditions (or at least perception of same), freedom of professional inquiry, and ability to go to work every day in shorts, birkenstocks, and dress socks. (Seriously, what the fuck dudes?)
Nowadays, the same comparison has people right out of school in the private sector making incomes comensurate with tenured professors, and the upside potential is in the mid six figures in salary alone, plus options or other non-salary compensation. The equation is harder to sustain, so (at least in certain fields or at colleges of renown), you have to pay faculty something astronomical just to be back in the realm of “way less $, but with other rewards.”
–Cliffy