How much worse is student debt now compared to the mid-to-late 20th century?

College Confidential Community
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And has the government been at all responsible for this change?

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https://ticas.org/sites/default/files/pub_files/Debt_Facts_and_Sources.pdf lists some historical average student loan debt levels.

You can say that many state governments are partly responsible due to defunding state universities, so that in-state tuition rates are higher and in-state financial aid is worse in many states. Since in-state public universities have been (and often still are) the default lower cost options for many students, increasing net prices for those schools tend to increase cost and debt borne by the students and their families.

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Yes, it’s much higher because public universities are unaffordable for most students, in particular since the 2008 recession led to huge cuts - some public universities went from 80% state funding to 30 or even25% state funding and had to make it up with tuition. In parallel, neither state grants nor federal aid has kept pace and minimum wage hasn’t either. (Last year I calculated that if minimum wage has risen at the same pace as public tuition, it’d be $54 an hour.)
This is very different from post WW2 (when many states had free or virtually free public colleges) or even the 70s-80s. For example, when Pell Grants were created, they covered the average cost of tuition, fees, room, and board. By the mid 80s they only covered tuition and were abutted to federal loans, but you could still attend your state University for less than $1,000 a year so you could ‘work your way through college’ with a part time job.
Yet, a college degree has never been as important.
In the 70s-80s there were plenty of good, stable jobs for people with a high school diploma. A man could work the assembly line or the furnace, make three or four times minimum wage, have two weeks paid vacation + health insurance, and retire with full pension at 55 or 60. Those jobs simply don’t exist anymore.
All jobs require a qualification - from a trade, a community college, or a 4- year college. The difference in income between someone who graduated high school and someone who has further education or a college degree has never been greater.
College or further training has become a necessity that’s priced as a luxury good.