Ugh, it's all too often, even at schools in China. The majority of training is physical fitness, running through basic postures, and practicing forms. Applications may be shown or mentioned, but when it really comes to partner work or sparring, it's all sanda with no relation to the forms you spend so much time working on.
Rarely will you find a good teacher who can/will explain the concepts and principles of their system and drill you on actually putting it to use. I've come across few in China, and haven't personally witnessed any outside of China, only individuals but not schools.
I love Shaolin, but unfortunately, it's just about tradition in most cases. Just look at the type of topics we have going in the different forums here. Other forums are discussing practical drilling and fighting principles. The Shaolin forum is mostly history discussion. People interested in actually learning a practical self defense system will be better off elsewhere.