I don't know about that in terms of day-to-day interactions, but I know that in service industries, U.S. politeness seems quite rude to Australians, while our version would be equally rude to them. It took me a long time to realise that U.S. customers weren't EXACTLY being rude to me, they were simply interacting in the way that they're accustomed to. They must have found me equally offensive. We try to be polite through relationship-building (chatter, making jokes, even teasing!). If one wants to be rude, it's done through distancing oneself ("You are not worth my attention as a person") even if the language forms used are perfectly courteous. To other nations, us being polite can appear pushy and extremely rude, assuming a relationship where there is no reason for one to exist.