PA has not been "taken over" by Ranul Tech, rather it was on the brink of death and Lunar_Lamp struck a deal with Jagex to keep it alive - for now. Same owners, same management, though with a bit more freedom to make changes.
The changes in the last few rounds have been minimal, as usual. PA Team mostly changes the game to make it more usable, think Alliance Defense page and scan requests. Other than that there have been tweaks (like XP formulae) but the core gameplay is and will be the same for a while. See the
changes from last round page for more specific information.
People will still ring you up because attacks still occur at the optimal time (which is when most people are asleep), and Whatsapp has replaced SMS mostly, not IRC, though some of the activity has gone to Whatsapp groups.