I got my PPL in the US.
Shame on me.
Or not, read on...
I then joined the University Air Squadron, so I believe I have something to compare the training to.
Maybe I was lucky- my instructor had had already validated his ATPL with 1500h, and had actually stopped logging the single engine hours he was flying(????). He stayed on as an instructor, though, just until his conversion course (to UK ATPL) started. The instruction he gave me was second to none, and I mean NONE, including the instruction I was given in the UAS.
Starts walking towards the bunker
I was given some pretty poor instruction by an instructor I had for my IMC, also in Florida- so much so that I was tested on ILSs during my flight test and told the examiner (after my third failed attempt) that I'd never done one, because with all the instruction given to me by Mr V***** *a*i*a, that was what seemed like the truth.
Thankfully (or not?), the instruction given to me by my PPL instructor was enough for me to pass the test on an SRA (bear in mind that this is mid afternoon Florida in June. Turbelence? just a bit).
So, I think to generalise that all instructors 'over there' are bad is unfair. There are some bad ones, but as I know there are some bloody good ones too.