Probably has more to do with birth rates, but nevertheless its a good thing since these institutions of higher learning will be more accessible to people who are actually passionate about whay they’re learning rather than a bunch of people trying to check a box
Fertility rates are an interesting hypothesis, but looking at the data I think we can definitely say that's not the driver. In 2011 there was total enrollment of about 21 million. In modern times we're down to around 19 million. [1] Fertility rates have only recently cratered, and from 1990-2010 we were even pretty close to sustainability. That's relevant, because that's when most of all of the current student body would have been born. So there's definitely fewer children, as can be clearly seen in this population pyramid [2], but it can also be seen the difference is, at most, the low hundreds of thousands. And we're talking a difference on the order of millions fewer students.
An open question would also be the overall shift (if any) in international enrollment. If international enrollment has stayed the same (or even increased) then it means the decline in American enrollment could be even more extreme. By contrast if international enrollment has completely plummeted, it could go some way towards mitigating these numbers.
