my $globalLogLevel = 1;
# ...
my @el = $mech->by_id('MainContent_ddldist');
@el ?    log('by_id','MainContent_ddldist',@el)
    : whoops('by_id','MainContent_ddldist');
#...
sub log {
    $globalLogLevel or return;
    printf ('Success with %s:%s', shift(), "\n");
    @_ and print dumper(@_);
}