I disagree - I can't see why it'd all fall apart just because a controller waits until an aircraft is number 1 on final and the preceding has either vacated or is sufficiently far down the runway for a clearance or "land after". There is no reason at all that several aircraft should share landing or take of clearances for the same runway.
As for the notion that US controllers expect a pilot to listen and know what all the other aircraft are doing, that is entirely the controller's job - they are the ones with surveillance radar and ground movement radar, and a seat and set of windows that aren't attached to a platform they're also controlling moving in three dimensions at a couple of hundred miles per hour... Good pilots will try to build an air picture of the traffic around them in easy conditions, but when the weather is bad or bits are falling off, or they're visiting a field with unduly complex procedures (ie most of the US) for the first time, their focus is going to be somewhat narrower.
Last edited by Aluminium shuffler; 6th Jan 2016 at 16:24.