The topic is a bit too broad for the simple, one-shot answers that forumites tend to prefer.
A new golden age in EVE would basically require new reasons to play and engage in activity, and interesting types of activity, across the spectrum of Hi/Low/FW/Null/WH space. Although it would likely be sufficient to concentrate on High and Null space first since that would affect most of the player base.
Since CCP isn’t really capable of quality game design at this point, the only way it could happen would be to tweak up some existing game mechanics into a form that made it more interesting for many players to participate.
Possible areas to approach:
- Player content creation similar to what’s been done by EVE Pandora
- Expanding the contract system to various types of mercenary, defense, hunt/kill, provide resources contracts
- Create in-game leaderboards per region for various types of activity and link some rewards/recognition to performance
- Give PvP a scoring system with unlocks for various ranking so there’s more reason to participate in hunting various targets/ship types
- Make “participation in the growth of your racial empire” more meaningful than a character background choice you click once during creation and ignored thereafter.
Most of these options could/should be tied back into a “player content creation” system that allows players, corps, alliances to set up various contracts, missions, or goal-targets with set rewards for completing/participating.
The most glaring lack in EVE in the past decade, IMO, is that CCP has failed to create strong gameplay mechanics supporting more PvP and conflict in the game. Instead they’ve simply nerfed most of the interesting or rewarding content, apparently based on the foolish notion that players will simply play longer if rewards are harder to earn.