I'm not sure the US litigation culture caused SOP's to spiral out of control but it certainly would not have helped. Once upon a time we used to have airmanship and common sense; then in the seventies we found a new empire being created around the idea of CRM. This really did expand at a great rate into a world where we all have to be politically correct and be fluffy at all times to all concerned. Where it all went horribly wrong was that the idea of Cockpit or Crew Resource Management lost sight of the last word of the description in which the Aircraft Commander/Captain actually 'managed' his resources on board the aircraft. This does not mean that he has to be nice to people all of the time, he has to have the ability to get the job done with recognition of his resources and react accordingly. So leading back to the topic, the Captain has to do battle with company cultures which lead some of the younger troops to believe that SOP's offer the answer to everything and that 'some' repeat 'some' think they have equal voting rights on all issues at all times - often they do but not all the time ! Personally, I always try and bring my colleagues on the flight deck into the equation on all things but I reserve final judgement if and when required. Their SOP's are probably better than mine and they can probably fly a simulator better than I can but chances are they have never really had much 'handling' experience of large aircraft and the old memory bank can be very useful from time to time !