On a broad level, he told me, the case reveals a fundamental “crisis” in American society.

“As America has become more and more unequal, affluent parents have become increasingly desperate to pass on their advantages to their children and to avoid downward mobility at all costs,” Mr. Karabel said. “Elite colleges have become seen as insurance against downward mobility.”

That effect is magnified in California, one of the most economically unequal states in the country — which also happens to be home to some of the most desirable universities in the country.

“California is an epicenter of enormous wealth,” he said. “And basically where you have major concentrations of wealth, you have the possibility of corruption.”

Mr. Karabel said that the alleged scheme appeared to stem less from the parents’ desire to make sure their children learn than from “parental anxiety” in a society in which being rich is the best way to stay rich, and if you fall, there’s less of a safety net.

In other words, he said, “The costs of failure are higher and the rewards of success are also higher.”

Still, I talked to Doug Haynes, vice provost for Academic Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at U.C. Irvine, and he emphasized that thousands of first-generation college students are getting world-class educations at California’s public universities in particular.

The scandal, he said, is troubling in large part because it erodes students’ trust in those institutions.