You are looking at the HTML representation of the XML format.
HTML is good for debugging, but is unsuitable for application use.
Specify the format parameter to change the output format.
To see the non HTML representation of the XML format, set format=xml.
See the complete documentation, or API help for more information. 
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<api>
  <query-continue>
    <alltransclusions gatcontinue="YesNo" />
  </query-continue>
  <query>
    <pages>
      <page pageid="27" ns="10" title="Template:Discussion Note" />
      <page pageid="54" ns="10" title="Template:Domains Nav" />
      <page pageid="67" ns="10" title="Template:EffortColour" />
      <page pageid="69" ns="10" title="Template:Issue" />
      <page pageid="52" ns="10" title="Template:Note" />
      <page pageid="66" ns="10" title="Template:PriorityColour" />
      <page pageid="20" ns="10" title="Template:Public Strategy Nav" />
      <page pageid="24" ns="10" title="Template:Round corners" />
      <page pageid="68" ns="10" title="Template:StatusColour" />
      <page pageid="21" ns="10" title="Template:Vbar" />
    </pages>
  </query>
</api>