Their schools were already orders of magnitude cheaper. Get ready for extreme brain drain!

Haven’t European schools been cheaper since like the 80s tho?

Yep

So I would think the brain drain would have happened a long time ago, like back in the 90s. Sadly, most of us Americans will just keep paying more and more for stuff rather than give any of it up.

It is quite hard to even get accepted to a foreign undergrad program out of high school. Grad school is a bit easier but it's still difficult and traditionally there is just enormous amounts of money in the US academic system so going abroad really needs to be something you prioritize. Also many US grad students don't pay tuition for PhD track programs. You get an assistantship with a stipend.