What's Old is New Again

I've said it before but I'll say it again: All the articles about how this year's admission numbers are tougher than ever could have been written (and probably have been) every year for the past 10 years. I have a WSJ article from 2001 that reads like it was written yesterday, although with smaller different numbers of course. What does it all mean? Have hordes of college-age applicants been left to forage in the countryside instead of going to college? Have the numbers of seats in colleges expanded to accommodate all those new students? (We know that the actual number of bodies as well as applications has risen.) Where IS everyone??