Did people stop driving cars or did the cars made in Detroit become uncompetitive?
It’s the policies of the states that make businesses flee. No different in my state, New York. The punishing tax rates make it prohibitive to set up shop here.
Its a combination of factors of why the american auto industry struggled, competition making better vehicles was huge. However that's not the reason manufacturing jobs left Michigan, the biggest was that the big 3 found cheaper labor outside of the States. Did you notice when the company's found drastically cheaper labor American car prices did not lower. Michigan did not want these company's pulling out and I agree that state policies cause business to leave BUT a state like California, that is very employee conscious and centered, is thriving despite all the restrictions.
Detroit and Flint, for the most part, are places that should be avoided. But it's not fair to compare these two to liberal San Francisco and drawing the parallel that it's because of leftist programs/agenda that the cities are disaster zones.