I don't know about Tom Murphy's (from the paper) opinion but I do see permaculture being taken seriously by people in the field - Post Carbon Institute for example (https://www.postcarbon.org/).
Thanks for posting that link. I took a look at their website and it's reassuring they way they succinctly pitch permaculture: "One collection of ideas and skills that’s already handily packaged and awaiting adoption is permaculture—a set of design tools for living created by ecologists back in the 1970s who understood that industrial civilization would eventually reach its limits." The phrase "already handily packaged and awaiting adoption" is a simple message that could get the point across to policy makers and the public (even though it ignores that there have already been successful permaculture-based ecosystem restoration projects for decades now).