I checked my alma mater and the current price (tuition & fees only) for a semester (15 Hrs) is $7,000. When I graduated in '86, it was ~$750 and that was under the old "full time" rule where you paid for the first 12 hours but could take up to 18 for no additional cost. So, in 30 years, the price of attending a state university in my State has gone up 10 fold. I would also add that the admission's standards at my alma mater are much higher now too.
The Federal minimum wage in '86 was $3.35 and it stands at $7.25 today, so a little more than doubled. Ignoring payroll taxes, I had to work 224 hours to pay for a semester of school, whereas a student today needs to work 965 hours. That is more than four times as much, so I think that it is fair to conclude that it is much harder to work and pay your way through school now than it was 30 years ago.
With respect to the working world of then versus now, my "then" is 19 years ago when I started on my second career at my megacorp. New hires could expect a company funded 50% pension after 35 years, a 3% match in an ESOP, access to a 401k (no match), and really good health care benefits such as no drug co-pays. Retirees got company paid life insurance! New "data processing" hires were given several months of training. We did have to work a full year before we received any vacation time (had to earn it!)
Fast forward to today where new hires have no pension, just a 6% match to their 401k and much higher health care costs. And you can forget about most of those retiree benefits. FWIW I think the changes on the pension side were done because the company hated not being able to predict future costs and because incoming employees were not shopping for the best benefits package any longer. On the health care side it's purely cost driven with more and more of it being shifted to employees and I don't see any reason to expect that to slow down.
I still think that the middle class dream is attainable in America, but I do think that there are more risks now than there were 30 years ago. The 401k is still an experiment as far as I am concerned. It can work, but will it for a majority of the workforce? If we need STEM graduates, how do we make college more affordable so they don't start their careers without too much debt? Consumer spending drives our economy so I think there is a knock on effect of college graduates paying back student loans instead of buying "stuff." Shh, don't tell them about LBYM