There's a bit more to it. What most identify as American "Cheese" is the Kraft Single or its equivalent competitors, a product without enough cheese in it (< 51

There's a bit more to it. What most identify as American "Cheese" is the Kraft Single or its equivalent competitors, a product without enough cheese in it (< 51%) to even legally label as cheese, and per the FDA at least is not legally "American Cheese". It must be labeled as a cheese "food" or "product". But the branding emphasizes American, Singles, and Calcium, the rest is the fine print. There are higher quality actual American Cheeses, that can actually call themselves cheese unqualified, brands such as Kretshcmar, Boar's Head, etc. Kraft does make a somewhat lower end version under the Deli Deluxe label. They are produced from a combination of Cheddar and Colby. But its not just gatekeeping there is a wide latitude in the quality and constitution of the various products marketed as "American" cheese ..., some of them don't contain any milk! This type of market segmentation isn't as common with better quality cheese varieties for a number of reasons. At the extreme the "American" label gets put on dollar store imitation "cheese" singles. Whereas I don't know of much imitation provolone sold anywhere. And mass-produced has little to do with it. Most deli cheeses are mass produced but people tend to have strong preferences for alternatives to American irrespective.