Fantastic thought. Though I think economic signaling theory shows the bottoms-up motivator.
Certainly in the US, the GI Bill lead to a decreased value for high school diplomas for the median graduate. This doesn't mean it wasn't the right idea for the time, just that it's caused a lot of crowding out. I feel like the Elite Overproduction is a good post hoc descriptive theory but missing the why.
This sounds like a market dynamic to me. If it were difficult to find qualified candidates, requirements would be lowered.
Just leaving this here... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elite_overproduction