This could also be symptomatic of controlling from the flight deck using TCAS. If they see no traffic they decide that (whatever your plan) they will dictate the traffic pattern. I had this the other evening. Tower ask for the inbound to be extended to allow an aircraft to get away on a tight slot. Couple of extra track miles for the inbound but an unneccesary call to me and a subsequent explanation to the aircraft( albeit a short one).
Most ATCO's can do range/descent profiles in their sleep and will not delay an aircraft unneccessarily.
Fly the aircraft, let me worry about the sequence and don't engage in superfluous chit chat.