my %newhash = (
    accesslevels => {
        func1   => $oldhash{function}{func1}{content},
        default => $oldhash{function}{default}{content}
    }
);
[download]

my %newhash;
foreach my $key1 (keys %oldhash) {
    foreach my $key2 (keys %{$oldhash{$key1}}) {
        foreach my $key3 (keys %{$oldhash{$key1}{$key2}}) {
            $newhash{$key1}{$key3} = $oldhash{$key1}{$key2}{$key3}{con
+tent}
        }
    }
}
[download]

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use Data::Dumper;

my %a = ('accesslevels' => {
                  'function' =>  {
                         'func1' =>   {
                                             'content' => 'val1'
                                          },
                         'default' => {
                                             'content' => 'val2'
                                          }
                  }
            }
);


my %b = map { $_, 
                    { 
                      func1 =>
                      $a{$_}{function}{func1}{content} ,
                      default =>
                      $a{$_}{function}{default}{content}
                    } 
                } keys %a;


print Dumper(%a);
print Dumper(%b);
[download]

my %a = ('accesslevels' => {
                  'function' =>  {
                         'func1' =>   {
                                             'content' => 'val1'
                                          },
                         'default' => {
                                             'content' => 'val2'
                                          }
                  }
            } ,
            'accesslevels1' => {
                  'function' =>  {
                         'func1' =>   {
                                             'content' => 'val3'
                                          },
                         'default' => {
                                             'content' => 'val4'
                                          }
                  }
            } ,
            'accesslevels2' => {
                  'function' =>  {
                         'func1' =>   {
                                             'content' => 'val5'
                                          },
                         'default' => {
                                             'content' => 'val6'
                                          }
                  }
            } ,
            'accesslevels3' => {
                  'function' =>  {
                         'func1' =>   {
                                             'content' => 'val7'
                                          },
                         'default' => {
                                             'content' => 'val8'
                                          }
                  }
            } ,
            'accesslevels4' => {
                  'function' =>  {
                         'func1' =>   {
                                             'content' => 'val9'
                                          },
                         'default' => {
                                             'content' => 'val10'
                                          }
                  }
            } ,
            
);
[download]

Not sure this qualifies as more elegant, or just more obfuscated than rev_1318's solution.

use YAML;

my %h = (
'accesslevels' => {
  'function' => {
    'func1'   => { 'content' => 'val1' },
    'default' => { 'content' => 'val2' }
  }
},
'accesslevels2' => {
  'function' => {
    'func1'   => { 'content' => 'val1' },
    'default' => { 'content' => 'val2' }
  }
});

for my $L (values %h) {
  my (%tmp, $k, $v);
  for (values %$L) {
    $tmp{$k} = $$v{content} while ($k,$v) = each %$_;
  }
  $L = \%tmp;
}

print Dump \%h;
[download]

FWIW,

use strict;
use warnings;

my %hash = (
            accesslevels => {
                             function => {
                                          func1 =>   {
                                                      content => 'val1
+'
                                                     },
                                          default => {
                                                      content => 'val2
+'
                                                     }
                                         }
                            }
           );

sub flatten {
  my $hash = shift;
  while ( my ( $k, $v ) = each %$hash ) {
    next unless ref $v eq 'HASH';
    flatten( $v );
    exists $v->{ $_ } and $hash->{ $k } = $v->{ $_ }
      for qw( function content )
  }
}

use Dumpvalue;

flatten( \%hash );
print Dumpvalue->new->dumpValue( \%hash );

__END__
'accesslevels' => HASH(0x814cad4)
   'default' => 'val2'
   'func1' => 'val1'
[download]