Forgiveness and forebearance don't apply to private loans, OP. That's where most of the problem is.
If you only took the annual federal loan cap, nobody would graduate with more than ~$60k in debt.
Meanwhile, I know people with $200k in loan debt, because they were sold a bill of goods by a private "art" school, told about their lucrative future designing video games, and are slaves to the sunk cost fallacy. (Well, I took out $50k in loans for my first year... but I don't really like college. I guess I'll just do the easiest major I can so the money isn't wasted!)
Or their 5-year career plan is "marry rich." (Sorry, kiddo, there are more cute blondes out there than doctors. Doesn't matter how hard you pray to Jeebus.)
I knew one kid (well, guy, he's my age now) whose parents told him to shut up, not read it, and sign the papers. 6 years later, he's $300k in debt. His dad told him, "well, you needed to go to college. I'll die soon and you can use the insurance payoff to deal with the loans."
Poor. Planning. And not just on the part of the stupid kids. This doesn't happen in a vacuum - their parents are with them, cosigning on the loans, and helping them make these incredibly stupid decisions.
I used to work at a copy shop in downtown minneapolis. A few blocks away was the Art Institute. I never knew any people who went through there who graduated with <$50k in debt (national average is <$30k.) And while some of those kids had a fair degree of talent, there's no shortage of graphics designers in the universe. And every goddamn one of them seemed to think they were going to make $10k a weekend designing web pages and doing contract work. (ha!)
About half of my coworkers were AI grads. Raking it in at $10/hour!
Full disclosure: I took out $28k in loans for a meh arts degree. I paid them down with what I had left, refinanced $21k at 4.25% for 20 years ($131/month), set up autopay, and forgot about it. As long as I have a job of any kind, it'll take care of itself and I can worry about other things.
The problem isn't the major, or even the loans themselves - hell, burning $30k for a two year vacation beats the hell out of spending the same $ on a month in Europe. But it all comes back to the dollar amount. When you have THAT MUCH debt, and THAT MUCH of a monthly payment, unless EVERYTHING goes right for you career-wise (and let's be honest, who here hasn't bagged groceries or delivered pizza in between real jobs?) you're completely fucked.