Maybe Brits have more time on their hands to discuss such things??

Seriously, I think Freightdawg's comments are right on target. From what I see at various U.S. festivals, the Folk Alliance and doing my radio show - there is still a huge emphasis on the singer-songwriter aspect of folk music.   During the 80's and 90's the word "folk" became a "4 letter word". Musicians would call themselves "acoustic" or "singer-songwriter". Traditional music seemed to go underground.   In recent years the appreciation for traditional music seems to be growing again. I receive many trad CD's now of American folk music that did not seem to exist a few years ago.   

However, there still seems to be less involvement with traditional music. As someone said earlier, Americans would rather be entertained and not as many people are actively researching and studying the music as they once were.

As Susan said, our folk heritage can be traced back to other countries so we do tend to end up back "home".

Ron