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1. More and more people are getting degrees, making them less of a differentiator.

2. Knowledge is more and more readily available and is not limited to degree holders.

3. Politics is infecting universities with propaganda.

4. Universities are coming up with useless degrees in order to attract students.

5. Universities focus too much on degrees and grades and not enough on knowledge.

A very good summary. I think it's important to factor in the comment from someone else around here that distinguishes between a degree and a university education. I think there's a market for a three-year back-to-basics course where you are doing rigorous self-study and small-group tutorials intensively for the whole time. Possibly Oxford and Cambridge still do that to some extent? Certainly it addresses all five of your points, including the one about propaganda (too much free time).

I'd add: 6. Universities are focused on delivering what students (think they) want, not on delivering a good education.

I've seen pretty blatant cheating pushed under the rug as it was more effort to pursue it than the course leader could be bothered with (after all these were paying customers).

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