Jeannie, I've noticed the vowel distortion too. "hallauwy, hauy mai ai help yew?" comes down my phone regularly. I think it may be to do with a generation raised on Aussie soaps, it appears to be a mixture of Estuary and Oz.
I've also heard that some schools now actually pipe music into the classroom for reading hour as the children find the silence frightening and distracting.
It could be we're being evolved out of society!