Yes, in the idealized past of greater emphasis on liberal arts education in college, a much smaller percentage of people went to college, so college was not really a democratizing force in society (indeed, it may have functioned more of confirmation of one’s status in the elite classes).
The great expansion of college education starting in the 1950s probably did expand pre-professional study much more than liberal arts study, but the percentage of all people who have bachelor’s degrees in liberal arts today is greater than the percentage of all people who had bachelor’s degrees of any kind in that idealized past.