Gearbox is moving onto being edgier and sillier. Borderlands kicked it all off, then Duke, and they aren't going back to the more straight laced days of Brothers in Arms without some of that goofiness. Probably a good thing though.
Let me say that from a developer's standpoint, they spend years making these games. Their enjoyment over the course of those years is more important than your hours of playing it, even if it's 500 hours. They took much much longer making it.
ALL ABOARD THE SELFISH TRAIN