Joseph, The community used its authority as appropriate to support the poor and its chachamim. However, if you notice,there were no kollels until the late 1800’s despite that authority. From Wikipedia:
Until 1877, yeshivas only subsidized students until they got married (at an early age). When the Kollel was established, Rabbi Salanter was attacked by many, precisely for this point. He instituted the practice of paying a small salary to married students to continue their advanced Talmudical studies. He defended this innovation because he said that he was training leaders. His argument was that the need for well-trained communal leaders mandated this drastic action. The justification was that these individuals would eventually serve the community, and it was not that because they sat and learned that they should be supported.
__________________________________________________________
Never was an undue burden placed upon the community. Kollels were limited, designed to produce chachamim of the highest caliber who could then serve in klei kodesh, infused with the chochmas hatorah.
Until a few years ago, America was blessed with an overabundance of wealth. People of all backgrounds and education levels were able to generate wealth at will through various investments, real estate, etc. Many gevirim who bankrolled yeshivas and kolels had minimal secular education. People just spent money like water and tossed it around. So why not have a large cadre of kollel yungeleit learning forever? It was just money. The kollel community grew by leaps and bounds, but it was easily paid for.
The American financial climate took a severe turn for the worse in the last 3 years. Health care and education costs skyrocketed while pay remained the same. Housing prices plummeted, leaving many without the extra cash needed, and without the ability to refinance when the option ARM re-adjusted. The easy money from real estate and finance was gone. Large numbers of gevirim and even well-to-do baalei battim just disappeared.
So now the middle-class and lower middle class are expected to pay exorbitant tuitions to cover kollel kids. And those same families are expected to support children in kollel for many years. This cannot continue. We must go back to kollel as it was implemented by the gedolim of Europe (Rav Yisroel Salanter, Rave Itzele Peterburger, etc). Kollel is 4 or 5 years, after which one is expected to work in klei kodesh or another line of parnassah.
EDITED