You're so right re: American pairs. These days none of them stick together long enough to reach that altered state where two people truly do "skate as one," as Dick Button always described it. IIRC, the last US pair on the podium @ the Olys was Watson/Oppegard in 1988. So long...
Love the history in this thread, though!
While it's certainly been a long time since US pairs have cracked or neared the podium, I think the US pairs issue is more complex than pairs simply not staying together. Castelli and Shnapir, the top US pair, have been together almost eight years. Evora and Baldwin were together a decade before she retired. That's hardly flaky and it's unfair to lump all the recent US pairs in with the Denny/Coughlin and Rockne drama. C&S may never win olympic gold but it won't be because they threw in the towel on the partnership. Also sometimes pair break ups can be a good thing. See Meno & Sand and also Scimeca & Knierim- she went from nowhere with her prior partner to top 10 at Worlds in 1 season