It used to be a lot easier to get a law degree. California is currently the only state that will let you sit for the bar without a JD. You have to have equivalent work experience but you can still as a completely private citizen get yourself into practice.

Industrial gatekeeping is a real problem. One of the indirect mechanisms is the accumulated complexity of the law and the seeming inability for legislatures to remove outdated and fruitless laws from their books. Unsurprisingly the people most capable of achieving this are not interested in doing it.