I think you are confusing 1995 with 2005. Perl was in decline by 2000 and by 2005 it was terminal; you could probably count the number of perl shops of any consequence in that year on the fingers of one hand.
Python 2.0 was released in 2000. Python 1.0 was 1994, and Python 0.9 (first public release?) was 1991.
Check the google trends. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=p... Its unclear when perl peaked since it has been in decline since before 2004 But it wasn't til late 2007 that Python overtook Perl in google searches
Even while it was in decline people were still making that argument.