Why is California falling apart?

Systemic racism and classism. The rich, predominantly white elites living in California's vast suburbs have used exclusionary zoning laws to keep the lower class away from themselves, strangling the supply of housing and raising rents through the roof. This is especially bad in California because they're a tech hub with a lot of high skilled workers, who can bid a shit ton of money for limited apartments.

This vast ocean of suburban sprawl has, in turn, made public transit, walking, and biking infeasible throughout most of the state, which further hurts the state's impoverished population by forcing them to buy and maintain cars, which is very expensive.