How about "programming perl/python". a graph very similar to OP's
http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=programming%20perl%2C...
That's identical to "<> programming", which gets a boost because python gets disambiguated.
No, it doesn't. There's no reason for the proportion of people looking for perl related stuff who use "perl language" as a search term to change over time. That proportion might affect the absolute numbers, but not the trends.
To be clear, I don't doubt there is a drop in Perl mindshare and usage, I just don't think the original comparison, or the alternative one you posted, really shows a relation between Perl and Python in any meaningful way.