There has been a language change, from progressive exaggeration. When someone now says "Well, it's official..." they mean something near the opposite. It is no longer used to signify that some authority has certified a thing, it means some new occurrence has brought to the point of no return, or sometimes, the people I disagree with have admitted how evil they really are.
We hear it most often about politics, but it's multipurpose.
"Well, it's official, the Democrats have declared war on the rest of the country."
"Well, it's official, Donald Trump is cancelling the 2028 elections."
"Well, it's official, the Presbyterians have denied the gospel of Jesus Christ."
"Well, it's official, the school board doesn't care about special-needs children."
This will be followed by some minor and often obscure news that they want you to pay attention to, because it proves what they have been saying all along. As with most hyperbole, there was originally some meaning behind it, treating some major event as the final straw, that everything but an official declaration had occurred, and we should be aware of our real situation. But of course that is just too delicious to leave alone. It's fun to perceive things that others have missed, to look smarter than the rest. The temptation is to prove yourself a True Princess by detecting the pea under so many mattresses. Progressive padding was likely inevitable.
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