So what do you propose? Should companies have to demonstrate a need for a college graduate in a certain position? How would they even do that?

There's lots of ideas out there. A big one is cultural - start pounding the bully pulpit against the "death by degrees" creep of requiring college of applicants for jobs that don't need it. Stop sending the message that we're heading towards a world where a college degree is an unavoidable gate to having a good jobs, even though many good jobs don't require it. Leading by example helps as well: Pennsylvania Governor Rob Shapiro just issued an executive order that revised a lot of its hiring standards to eliminate degree requirements for jobs that don't need one:

cbsnews.com - Gov josh shapiro first executive order state government jobs college degrees

Another way is by encouraging/subsidizing the sort of programs that allow people and companies to spend their first few post-HS years gaining experience and being screened in other ways. Apprenticeships, trial hires, paid internships, on the job training - these are the types of programs that provide a pathway for companies to identify quality workers instead of paying ~$200K in tuition and opportunity cost to a third-party private institution to perform the same screening functions.

One major obstacle, though, is that Democrats are now increasingly the party of the college-educated. Not only are they a sizable chunk of the party's votes, but college graduates are enormously over-represented in party leadership and positions of power. A world in which college degrees are an essential gate-keeping mechanism for "sorting" the rewards of our economy is one that profoundly benefits them, and their offspring - children of college-educated parents are much more likely to get a degree themselves. It's entirely in the interests of college-educated people to make sure that the status quo remains in place.