one may honestly point out that the allies seemed more like an axis of a few major powers, and the axis seemed more like a lot of allied nations. that observation would be underlying the semantic shift in the colloquial use of the term, but it's still masking the basic point, which is that it looks more like the uk (and canada) lost the war and joined the axis powers than that the allies actually won. what the uk media calls the allies today is the axis powers, plus the uk (and canada) and they are fighting the old allied powers, minus the uk (and canada).