As someone who grew up in California, I have watched it get trashed. This state used to be the pride of the nation when Ronald Reagan was governor in the 1960's--the best schools, roads, hospitals, airports, public safety, state parks and beaches, etc. The defense cutbacks at the end of the Cold War hurt employment somewhat, but by far the biggest cause of the mess has been illegal aliens.
They are an enormous net drain on California's economy--just giving all their kids a free K-12 education costs billions every year. And they quickly teach new arrivals the ropes of milking every drop out of the vast government welfare system--local, state, and federal. This involves large-scale fraud that everyone else pays for. But there are so many of these bums who have relatives here that those people stand up for them. And their influence has been felt politically. In about forty years, California has turned from a thriving, fairly conservative state into a bankrupt wreck run by corrupt Democrat politicians.