A previous poster said:
"Just because it was crossed over from C&W in the 1960s with the American school doesn't make it right, it pushes the sound in a "wrong" direction." #

Well, I've said this before and probably on this thread, but, for me, British folk guitar didn't truly come into its own until it broke away from the American influence.
In the mid-sixties, both Martin Carthy and Bert Jansch were leaning heavily on the American "clawhammer" style ( think "Lord Franklin" and "Needle of Death" ) but Bert moved away from that style...and Martin and others followed.
Then, of course, we have the very rhythmic "Irish" style which tends to utilise drop D and Dadgad tunings.

This driving style has indeed altered a lot of trad music ( particularly Irish music) but I feel that, if it hadn't, the music would be now followed by a far smaller audience.