It's town vs gown. You have separate areas and generally don't mingle. There is an age difference as well as a cultural and class difference. Much of Cambridge is gated off into colleges that a town person can't go unless escorted by someone connected to the university.
I was in the gown group, but even within this group there are additional degrees of stratification.
I went to Cambridge as an undergrad, and indeed I interacted basically exclusively with other undergrads. Now as an adult I'm living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and there are tons of undergrad students on the street, and I basically never interact with them at all (nor go into the the various university buildings that are scattered throughout the town).
But I wouldn't describe that as friction? If anything, it seems the opposite of friction, there are separate groups of people who are smoothly gliding past each other... I guess what I'm wondering is, do you feel there are any concrete problems or inconveniences caused by the town/gown distinction?
