That specific word?

Quite possibly - it's just a synonym for perhaps, which is (as I understand it) a fairly old word itself (though I don't know exactly when it took on its current form...let's be glad we don't have perhappons instead), though it has maintained popular use for longer.

Which might be the reason for the frequent use - if it sounds modern, they do tend to avoid it (and contrary to some seemingly petty opinions, they know more about older word usage and various rather esoteric references than they are being given credit for).