Gotten

'Gotten' is old English and rarely used in today's society.

Is it?
As far as I know, gotten in American English is still the preferred past participle to be used instead of "got" - e.g. I've gotten a package this morning (I received it this morning).

That's a good point pemm - I was looking at it from a Br. English point of view!

Here are two more examples. It's an American thing.

"That's it, things have gotten out of hand." (The situation has become out of control)

"Have you gotten better yet?" (Are you well yet, or still ill?)

American speakers use both forms of the past participle of "get", but not always interchangeably:

"She's got to have it." not "She's gotten to have it."
"We have gotten lost." not "We have got lost."
(Though we do say "We have got/gotten ourselves lost.)

And furthermore:
"I've got it." means I have it now.
"I've gotten it." means I have received it be

is it really the "preferred" use in USA? we certainly hear it frequently in films etc, but do politicans and formal writers use it?

The "have" in "I've got it" is not an auxiliary, while "have" and "gotten" in "I've gotten it" are auxiliary and past participle of get respectively.

Suzi,
I wouldn't look to politicians for examples of good grammar.

Grammarians duty is to explain the phenomena(usage), but not to tell some usage is is misusage/bad.

@ pedant, depends which country you're in, in the US and /UK surely they have well educated boffins writing their stuff for them?