Perl is like an eldest kid in the family who was loved by everyone when it was the only kid in the family. The problem is now there are many siblings of Perl coming out there, hence its not loved with the same intensity as that when it was a kid.

What will bring Perl back to glory are not those old childhood chubby looks. But adapting to the latest trends in the market like getting standard syntax defaults, a good packaged distribution which will work out of the box, Shiny and easy to use help sites like these, Keeping release promises and delivering on time. Currently the complains lie on the lines confusing and too many syntax module options, a difficult to configure and maintain production distribution unique to each project. Also frameworks on par with stuff like RoR, Django, Twisted.

A sooner production ready(by common definitions), stable, spec compliant Perl 6 will help.