What is going on with Apple's User Interfaces?

One of the things I was told before I got my first Mac was that Apple’s user interfaces were the most intuitive. Back in the early 2000s, I think that was probably true (compared, for instance, to Microsoft Windows, where you’d tap the “Start” button to shut it down).

This morning when I was sending an email and wanted to put my initials in italics, which is my wont, and I typed ⌘I, I was surprised to see the word “Oblique” appear in the toolbar.

Meanwhile in the icon-embellished “Format” menu, I is for Italic as nature intended.

Surely this is a regression and will be fixed before the next release?