Similar experience for me Oz > US.
Here it’s more a culture of ‘professionals helping professionals’. I nearly fell of my chair when the examiner shook my hand & said he was looking forward to working
with me on my FAA ATP Checkride.
ALPA has a lot of buy-in & oversight of check & training, which no doubt helps. I do ALPA work on the side and have seen first hand the level of engagement.
I generally didn’t get the same vibe in OZ (Hong Kong is even worse). Apologies to the (many) great folks I did encounter along the way though
.