This is the actual reason. It has nothing, or almost nothing, to do with Elon Musk or politics. The average person, the average Californian, even the average EV buyer is not doing it to make a political statement.

There are so many more options now than Teslas out there which provide quality and affordability. And there are used EVs on the market now that are viable, when there weren't before, including used Teslas.

Yes, there are people (like me) who would never buy a Tesla because they don't trust the company or don't like Musk, but we're a severe minority. The reality is that Tesla is becoming less special simply because the rest of the industry is catching up - as Tesla should have known, and probably does know, that it would. The question is what they do about it.