If they're losing esteem, it's because of the purity of education is fading. First, tuitions are becoming outrageous. The mixture of profit motive and higher education has an unpleasant odor.

Then, there are the numerous academic integrity scandals among now-infamous scholars at Ivies or similar, such as Marc Tessier-Lavigne, Dan Ariely, etc., and a general feeling that the overwhelming pressure for novel discoveries / getting published in a big journal is undermining scientific progress.

Also, there is a perception that students are increasingly selected for reasons other than academic merit, e.g. family name / an ancestor who was an alumnus, big donations, athletic vs. scholarly ability, and so on. Rich parents buying their kids' admissions through sports "recruitment" was particularly egregious.

Asian students with perfect SAT's and AP/IB-loaded 4.0+ GPA's being rejected for "non-racist" "reasons," as revealed by "Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard" and other top-tier American universities was a cherry on top.