Mixing his metaphors, the redoubtable John Cochrane describes what he calls “the recipe”:

1) introduce strong supply and competition restrictions, usually to politically favored groups. Soon, however, those groups start charging higher prices. So 2) give subsidies so people can pay the higher prices induced by 1). It’s perfect: now both sides depend on politicians. See, most egregiously, health care and housing.

Seems to me he’s got that exactly right, except that he should have included education in his list of egregious examples.