As more of a meta commentary, I would say abbreviating things in this way is an Americanism. I'm not sure what the historical origin of it is, but many politica

As more of a meta commentary, I would say abbreviating things in this way is an Americanism. I'm not sure what the historical origin of it is, but many political programmes, technical solutions, study memorization helpers etc are made into abbreviations in the US. Since the tech landscape is influenced heavily by the US, this practice has spread widely in the field too. Not necessarily a good nor a bad thing, just a curious detail I've noticed.