Elon is exactly what the problem is. If you look back on the company you can see a clearly defined strategy that the actual founder came up with and how it was effective and guided the organization to developing its first few models. Then look at the second series of goals and see how pie in the sky they are, and how the company never achieved those goals. They just moved on to more pie in the sky goals for the next strategy. That indicates an organizational dysfunction at the top. Sure they took advantage of some tax codes and hype to enter a bubble state, but that was unsustainable. Heck, Elon had a good idea to bring in a guy to revamp their manufacturing and because he did such a good job, Elon fired him because his ego couldn't handle it. If you want an even bigger example of Elon's ego, look at the 2006 company reports which Elon has backdated to place himself as CEO and Founder, when he never joined the firm until 2 years later. This is indicative of a person who is desperate for all credit, even undue credit.
The cars were fine overall, the first mover advantage was there, but this is how industries always go. Competitors move into the space and they chip away. Often the leader of the space doesn't innovate at the same pace, and they lose out. Consider how many people Skype using Zoom. Blackberry was called the crackberry because of the addiction of their users to texting and emailing. They also disappeared as competitors blew past them. Tesla is on the same trajectory. Their techbro creed -break shit and move fast, is horrible for a culture making actual things that need to be safe and thoughtfully built.