code: def recRemoveTreeFormating(element):
      
      children = element.getchildren()
      if len(children) > 0:
          for child in children:
              recRemoveTreeFormating(child)
      if element.text is not None:
          if len(element.text.strip()) == 0:
              element.text = None
          else:
              element.text = element.text.strip()
      if element.tail is not None:
          if len(element.tail.strip()) == 0:
              element.tail = None
          else:
              element.tail = element.tail.strip()
docs: Removes whitespace characters, which are leftovers from previous xml
      formatting.
  
      :param element: an instance of lxml.etree._Element
  
      str.strip() is applied to the "text" and the "tail" attribute of the
      element and recursively to all child elements.