[silentvoice]

At least in my field, doing a PhD in the U.S. was essentially the same as what the author described for their country. Freedom of topic choice comes with independent funding, otherwise your advisor will be telling you what is consistent with their funding, and among those projects what they believe is a good fit for you. Unless your advisor is made of research grants, that won't leave much choice for you. In the meantime you are effectively an employee (I like to think of it as an apprentice), you are learning your trade while providing a service for which you are usually compensated.