[mothballed]

>(I'm generally curious if part of the explanation is a reduction in CS education quality.)

Part of my explanation was a possible increase in quality of CS education for industry, as I mentioned, it is possible they geared it more towards industry than pure CS encouraging more students to go in.

>If grade inflation is happening to all degrees, that doesn't explain increased enrollment in CS.

It does because CS is (was?) a notoriously more difficult program. Since it is one of the highest paying degrees, making that difficulty of passing more accessible would naturally shift money oriented people more into CS.