It was normal until Republican Governor Deukmejian signed the Roberti-Roos Assault Weapons Control Act of 1989.
That was the point it started going downhill. Its decline has only picked up speed since.
As an ex-Californian who grew up there and lived most of my life there, my personal opinion is that California stopped being normal was when the voters foolishly decided that they needed a full time state legislature with full time paychecks and lots of extravagant benefits. I think I was in high school when this proposition passed, and that would have been in the 1960s. Anyway, since then things have gotten progressively crazier.