Does the American public worship Academia?

I don't think "worship" is quite the right term, but the simple fact that a college degree is seen as so necessary just to get a "good job" is actually an indictment on the educational and economic ideologies that have driven this country since the 1970s...

The Boomers were raised to reject all that came before them as being less-educated and less-civilized.  They, in turn, raised kids to be happy...not necessarily educated, useful or challenged in any way to instill competence and maturity...

There was a time when the social and educational system was designed to produce 18-year olds ready to enter the labor force in some capacity.  Colleges and Universities were to train exceptional kids for management and academic careers.

The "Boomer Mentality" replaced that with parents that just wanted to be their kids' best buddies and schools that just wanted them to be happy and socially aware...it's no coincidence that this was the same time period that saw American high schoolers fall far behind their counterparts in Europe and Asia...

Friends of mine in both Europe and Asia have described the American system as "upside down."  In the rest of the developed world, K-12 education is built around a rigid core of math, language proficiency, science and history...the notion being that kids need to be able to think quantitatively, communicate with one another and have some sense of common culture.  

University in other countries is where young people learn to socialize and bridge the gap between "hard" knowledge and the analytical/theoretical world.

In the USA, K-12 has become all about the "socialization" part with "hard" academics taking a back seat... the result is a bunch of 18 year olds who are highly opinionated but lack any real academic depth or sense of connection.  Thus they depend on college to give them the "education" needed to actually live and work in the real world.

No they don't worship the college degree. It's just that high schools don't teach as much skills as they used to, so people have to go to college. The high school graduates 50 years ago can write and do math better than many of the college graduates today. 

Everyone should aspire to get at least one so that they can remain competitive.