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The Mesilas Yeshorim bases his thesis on the ladder of middos that Rabbi Pinchos Ben Yair presents in our daf as well as in other places in shas (Avodah Zara 20b). The rungs that the Ramchal (author of Mesilas Yeshorim) uses as chapters are somewhat different than the ones in our Gemora. (He himself states in the introduction that this statement is found in a few places in Shas, where each Gemora may have a different version of the statement.)
We will present them here with the girsa of our Gemora:
Zerizus (alertness) leads to nekiyus (cleanliness);
nekiyus leads to tahara (purity);
tahara leads to kedusha (holiness);
kedusha leads to anava (humility);
anava leads to yiras chet (fear of sin);
yiras chet leads to chassidus (piety);
chassidus leads to ruach hakodesh (divine spirit);
ruach hakodesh leads to techias hameisim (resurrection of the dead);
techias hameisim leads to the coming of Eliyahu Hanavi.
and ponder the popularity of this work in the last hundred years across the spectrum of Jewish academies of learning.