There is. There is a relatively new IETF standard called RDAP that provides JSON-structured WHOIS data responses (i.e. https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7483 https

There is. There is a relatively new IETF standard called RDAP that provides JSON-structured WHOIS data responses (i.e. https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7483 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7483) along with automatic discovery. ICANN is working on making it a mandate for gTLDs to support it. It is already supported for IP address lookups by all 5 regional Internet registries.