\du quite ugly in 8.4

Could someone clarify why this (from PG 8.4)

# \du             List of roles  Role name   | Attributes  | Member of
---------------+-------------+------------admin         | Create role | {}              : Create DBpostgres      |
Superuser  | {}              : Create role              : Create DBsomeotheruser |             | {}someuser      |
      | {}
 

is an improvement over this (from PG 8.3)

# \du                                List of roles  Role name   | Superuser | Create role | Create DB | Connections |
---------------+-----------+-------------+-----------+-------------+------------admin         | no        | yes
|yes       | no limit    | {}postgres      | yes       | yes         | yes       | no limit    | {}someotheruser | no
    | no          | no        | no limit    | {}someuser      | no        | no          | no        | no limit    | {}
 
(4 rows)

The way I see it, a perfectly clear, complete, and legible table has
been turned into a denormalized, unreadable, and ugly pile of ASCII
salad that moreover wastes valuable vertical screen space instead of
using the abundant horizontal screen space.