Contrary to what many have mentioned, I am of the opinion that it is the console and its headroom that creates most of the perceived stereo depth. By combining that with good signal routing you get a good stereo image. If you apply chorus on sound sources before you pan, you are able to get more out of your panning. So enhancing stereo depth is in my opinion also about techniques that when they are applied make you able to achieve better panning. In a lecture I did in some other thread here some time ago, I mentioned that a stereo image can be built from the center outwards. You start with a center panned sound source like kick and snare, for each remaining sound source you bring in one sound source at a time in order of center to side, such that when you bring it in, it is panned just so much that it is perceived to be a bit further out and hence separates, in other words you want to add unique separation for each sound source further out.
These days many put entire sound sources hard L or R, like for instance a distortion guitar panned hard L and none of its frequencies on the other speaker. I think you should be careful with that, I find it ruins a lot of records out there because the mix as a whole sounds less natural and it makes the listeners tired to the songs faster. But what you can do instead is to pan it a bit less hard to remove that weight that is created from a hard panning and add a little delay on the other speaker. Just like you apply chorus before panning you can apply delay and reverb before panning too. Your panning moves become quite powerful when you have effects that assist in those moves...
Finally I want to mention that your monitoring quality plays a critical role in this too. You want to be able to hear the high frequency transients well across the stereo spectrum so that they are balanced to sit evenly across the stereo image, tons of speakers/cans out there cannot do that. For this reason, be careful with making side panned sound sources too loud. The acoustic guitar should just "kiss" the listener's ears without adding much punch. These types of techniques give you more room on the side which enhances the perception of the stereo image when it is used up.
With really good hardware you can push the sounds a bit more up front without causing much additional edge/bite in the transients, it just sounds bigger and all sound sources separate more while the mix still sounds soft. Big. So it is definitely a matter of having the gear to do it.
Also have some really nice hardware delays/reverbs that can do taped slap delay well. Getting slaps that are soft and pleasant in the background can really add some perceived size. Overall think about getting good groove/rhythm out of the transients across the stereo image. A great arrangement will bring important rhythm qualities to the stereo image.
It is also important to ensure the stereo image does not collapse in the choruses. Tons of mixes out there, even many that have got a chart position, collapse to some degree in the chorus, this is rarely the case with the top hit mixes though. This happens because in the choruses the broad stroke compression becomes too aggressive on the content, typically these mixes have very loud verses. Compression has to be applied so that there is breathing room left and that is removed when you push tons of signal into a very high compressor ratio, fast attack and an aggressive threshold. It is better then to apply the right type of compression for the broad stroke that dynamically allows those louder transients to not get smacked too hard. The louder and more sounds that are being played in the mix, the more important it is that these sounds have enough signal. Leave some headroom available to be used for the choruses, so that the massive playing rocks. You can focus that signal to the mids and highs, to avoid added weight.
Do not try to fake a good stereo image, great stereo images always come from great gear, techniques and ears.