From what I know, a PhD in the US is rather different from one in the EU. Though things also differ between EU countries.
Seems to be the same result by a different mechanism? I'm not entirely sure what the alternative view is of how this situation has come about. Why are students willingly entering into this deal. Is it being missold? Shouldn't there be a lack of demand.
Thus, in the US there is more pressure on a PhD, because they need to take care of their pay.
We have tuition-only grants for EU students, but that doesn't include living. Vanishingly few universities provide full funding for foreign students - the exception is positions which have project funding.
In most of Europe the situation is different: you're employed by the university. This has ups and downs. On the upside, it doesn't matter where you're from, you still get paid. On the downside you're a salaried employee with all the tax burdens, crappy holiday and HR requirements that brings.
The pressure in the UK is time. Universities are now under serious pressure to churn students and 4 years is a hard deadline. Typically you need special permission and have to pay a fee to submit after 4 years. In most cases you're also only funded for 3 years, occasionally 3.5.
In other countries, where you have an employment contract, it's less urgent provided your group has funding. It's common for EU PhDs to take 4-5 years. This is again good and bad. The British system encourages rapid specalisation at the expense of breadth of study and number of publications. Realistically in the UK if you get one journal publication, you've done well. Abroad, it's expected you'll get at least 2-3 and in some places you need 4-5 to form a thesis.