One can make the case that, in California, the higher education system was purposefully, consciously stratified along career and status tiers, as you described.

Community college system = workers in the practical trades

Cal State system = office workers

UC system = technologists, scientists, managers

Big name, elite, private universities = executives and high level politicians, the people who actually run society and its institutions

And, if you look at the architecture on the various campuses, it more or less reflects that.

Also, all of the community colleges, and an awful lot of the Cal State schools are commuter campuses. You come and you go. It's not your home. You're a renter. The place shuts down around 10 pm. (Get out of here, kids.)

By contrast, the elite private schools have sufficient dorm/house space to allow most of the students to live on-site: the students have a lot more access to buildings and more or less "own" the place while they're there.