I agree, kg, and it probably stems from the US trait to remove as many syllables as possible, yet they like to use superfluous words as well. This is why Americans refer to an "ongoing emergency situation" where the single word "emergency" would seem to suffice.
You have no doubt also noticed that we have started to follow the US in doing away with ordinal numbers when referring to dates, which clearly makes no sense, so we now have things like films starting at the cinema on "July 12" instead of July the 12th. There is no such thing as the 12 of July - it is the 12th day as it has followed on in order from the 11th, etc etc. My English teacher would turn in his grave. Mind you, he would not be "dead" these days as we seem now to have to use euphemisms, so he would have "passed away". Monty Python's parrot sketch has come to life!
Cheers
Neil