Reply #25: California's wealth has been evaporating for a long time.

[Xithras]

The manufacturing base is largely gutted, the movie industry has shrunk considerably due to out of state (and country) filming, mineral extraction is ended, financials have mostly relocated out of state, military dollars are a fraction of what they once were, the shipbuilding industry is simply gone, the coastal fishing industry evaporated along with it, aerospace is gone, the computer industry has been outsourced and offshored...I could go on, but it's getting monotonous.

What made California great is that we were once the home of many different and diverse high dollar industries. While some of those industries (like Hollywood) still maintain offices here, most of the real income generating grunt work is now done elsewhere. Some industries haven't even maintained that facade, and simply went away completely.