In my opinion whether or not it's the easy way out really depends. I took a good hard look at the value I was getting and the money I was spending and I just couldn't justify it. There certainly are many students who drop out just to get away and give up. To me it's not about giving up and I'm not attempting to talk myself up just speaking honestly when I say that when I look around, I just don't see the students in my area working hard at all. I see a lot of slackers that have a sense of entitlement that don't do any self education. They rely entirely on what they are taught in school and that's just not enough. I'm not generalizing, there are many amazing students out there taking full advantage of their university and working their but off in their spare time and I respect that.
If it's really the case, it seems like your problem is that you're at a lousy school. College is the best time to meet smart people with whom you'll want to work with later in life. Don't underestimate this.
This is something I didn't do and regret. I should have made more connections with smart people back then. Instead, I was working on startups, which wasn't such a bad thing at all actually. I just wish I had managed my time a bit better.