Epcot opened in 1982. Hollywood Studios and Typhoon Lagoon opened in 1989. Blizzard Beach opened in 1995. Animal Kingdom opened in 1998. California Adventure opened in 2001. These are only the parks in the US, not including the parks overseas. On top of that a few of these parks have had a good bit of expansion since their original opening, there has been more engineering to increase effective capacity of the rides, etc. Disney alone can move a lot more people through a Disney park every day than they could in 1960.
And then this ignores all the other theme parks which opened since Disney. Universal Orlando Resort opened in 1990. Universal's Islands of Adventure opened in 1999. Kings Island opened in '71. Carowinds opened in '73. Six Flags alone has 11 theme parks they still operate which opened after 1960, and all water parks they operate opened after 1960. Our stock of amusement parks has increased a ton since 1960.
What makes it expensive is airfare and hotel added on top of the tickets.
The California-specific Magic Key was much more restricted than the old locals pass, clogged with blackout days.
It was $399/person. It's long been sold out and nobody knows when they'll sell more.
They now offer these tickets to California residents:
* 3-Day (Monday-Thursday), 1-Park Per Day Ticket – $249 ($83/Day) Not Valid for Admission on Fridays to Sundays * 3-Day (Monday-Sunday), 1-Park Per Day Ticket – $299 ($100/Day) No Blockout Dates Apply
A standard non-california 3-day single-park ticket is $330, so you're only saving $10 a day being a local.
The whole California local thing is basically gone except for the hotel/flight advantage.
Disney has no reason to price discriminate in favor of locals-- indeed, locals don't buy as many souvenirs, etc.
This allows them to sell "single park" and "park hopper" tickets to further price segment. For a single day, I'd do a single ticket, one park is hard to "complete" in a day.
A lot of places like LA are significantly worse than they used to be. But flyover country still has pretty cheap living. My local Six Flags + Water Park season pass including parking was $80 per head this year as an example. That's a lot cheaper than $1k for a single visit to Disneyland.