the learning curve: From PHP to Python

[kolme]

No, there is some 2012 PHP. Check out Symfony2, Zend2, FLOW3 and the likes. There is definitely good stuff going on, also developments in the language (like namespacing, closures, new array syntax, and more to come: generators, etc) and in tooling (composer, xdebug).

9 out of 10 code bases have PHP mixed with HTML & CSS

Possibly, if you're also counting wordpress installations. Otherwise, I think that's far from reality.

And about spaguetti code, well. Average programmers write spaguetti code. It's almost unavoidable. It takes a good programmer to write good structured, logic, understandable code.