I believe that FunnyBadger is pointing out that people have been pointing this out for a long time and is frustrated that nobody has paid attention to it until it became a crisis. You know, kind of like how we treat every other problem we have.
It's not a crisis. People are simply louder about it now. When people stop signing up for PhD programs, THEN it's a crisis. Until then, the system has no reason to care, thus the general public will remain completely oblivious.
I was accepted into a Chem PhD program in the early 80's, but knew it would pay crap for years, so I figured I could work as a programmer for a couple years and save some money. 40 years later - I never went back to the PhD.
I finished grad school twenty years ago. My stipend was $1100/month for nine months and no tuition waiver. They did let me pay in-state tuition, since I was an employee within the state. For a while, I spent 60% of my after-tax stipend check on housing.