Update node / NPM and frontend build packages

[tomolopolis]

This is a somewhat interim commit between upgrading to vue3, as it upgrades the front end env build, the build system and the majority of front end deps. This change should not affect any features, only minor aesthetic changes to the 'tabs' component should be visible.

These changes:

• upgrade the build to use node18.x in ubuntu 20.04 LTS. Node 16 is no longer supported / receiving security patches.
• new vite based build is faster and offers a lot of dev improvements around hot reloading modules, removes the webpack build entirely.
• Upgrade / remove deprecated deps to reduce warnings and apply bug fixes / security patches etc.