What Happened to the Letter "T"?

Well, it's now on the news...  Actual news anchors, whose job it is to talk, are now pronouncing words with the letter "T" without pronouncing the "T."  Imagine "bu-un" instead of "button," "Moun-en" rather than "mountain,"  "cur-en" in place of "curtain."  Aaargh!  It drives me ba-y...  

I first noticed this phenomenon a few years ago when I heard a few millennials having trouble pronouncing words with a single or a double "T" in the middle.  They would get right up to the "T" sound and instead pronounce a hard vowel, whatever the following vowel was.  It bugged me, but I felt sorry for the young hipsters with the speech impediment.  But now, several people at work do this, people in the store, people in all walks of life, and yes, public figures and news anchors.  How embarrassing!

Maybe someday I'll be the embarrassed one for speaking in such a quaint, old-fashioned, proper manner.

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