Are the "polar vortex" and "cut-off lows" over/near the Great Lakes new phenomena?
The polar vortex
The AMS glossary defines the polar vortex as:

A planetary-scale mid- to high-latitude circumpolar cyclonic circulation, extending from the middle troposphere to the stratosphere. The Northern Hemisphere vortex often features two centers—one near Baffin Island and the other over northeast Siberia—with analogous circumpolar asymmetry atypical in the Southern Hemisphere. The westerly airflow is largely a manifestation of the thermal wind above the polar frontal zone of middle and subpolar latitudes. The vortex is strongest during the winter in the upper troposphere and stratosphere when the pole-to-equator temperature gradient is strongest. The stratosphere component of the circulation may be referred to separately as the “polar stratospheric vortex.” In summer, the strongest westerly circulation is largely confined to the troposphere, and the polar stratospheric vortex reverses in the upper stratosphere because of solar heating during the polar day.

This first descriptions of the polar vortex date back to the 1940s.  You'll also note that the description above describes an upper tropospheric and stratospheric circulation e.g. this is is something happening well above the surface of the earth.
The recent popular use of polar vortex to describe any particularly cold air mass can probably be traced back to someone (either a meteorologist of psuedo-meteorologist) on twitter making reference to it and then &quot;going viral&quot;.  However the media got a hold of the word, they are quite consistent in misusing it.
The definition above mentions

The westerly airflow is largely a manifestation of the thermal wind above the polar frontal zone of middle and subpolar latitudes

What this means is that the position and strength of polar vortex (the circulation up around the stratosphere) is strongly influenced by the position of strong surface cold fronts coming out of the poles.  The strong cold snaps are not the polar vortex, and the southern push of the high altitude polar vortex is a response of the cold snap, not the other way around.
Cut off lows
Cut off lows are not new either.  A mid-latitude trough can be cut off from the westerly flow and you end up with a cutoff or closed low.  These tend to be persistent, stationary mid and upper level lows that can last for days.  You can see an example of a cut off low in the flow over the US in this video.  Focus over the southern tip of Lake Michigan and you'll see it.  These type of cutoff lows can occur anywhere in the mid-latitudes.