My Chugger does exactly the same thing every so often. It drives me nuts. In my case, the pump makes a sudden "clunk" sound, and the whirring noise changes to a higher pitch. It stops pumping after this. I turn it off, let it sit for ~10 seconds, then turn it back on. Usually, it goes back to pumping just fine for the rest of the brew session. It's not cavitation--that makes a different sound, plus this happens even with cool liquid and plenty of head on the suction side. It might be that air has somehow gotten into the pump head and I just don't know it, (nor can I figure out how the air got in). I've taken the head apart but nothing anomalous inside. I have absolutely no idea what it is. I chalk it up to some design quirk that rears its ugly head once in a while.
That said, perhaps your return stream has bubbles in it, and it's returning the wort close to the kettle-valve outlet, so the bubbles are getting sucked back into the loop.