Latex itself is still progressing, they've incorporated lua into Tex so that they can add new features. There are also alternatives to Latex such as ConText although I've never heard of anyone actually using it. But in general it's hard to know what's really going on without doing a lot of research.

I also once read about another alternative to Latex called Lout but it never seemed to go anywhere.

I just use Lyx now to write my articles. I've actually pretty much forgotten the Latex that I used to know.