I can't think of any other industry where the is such an outlay to meet the bare minimums. If you do Uni or TAFE you can get HECS or Ausstudy (or whatever they are now) to cover your education costs, while you work on the side to meet your living costs.
I know there are some degrees which have a flying component to them, but it wasn't clear to me that the flying costs were covered - some seemed to imply they were part of the course as long as you did them at their flying school at exorbitant rates, and many things were out of pocket anyway.
I suppose until there is a "skills shortage" or some political imperative to have a HECS like structure for funding pilot training, its always going to have that financial speedhump to entry.