Sensei is only one of many titles used to establish hierarchy in Japan, and has a flexible and constantly shifting meaning depending on the situation. In fact, in daily speech everyone has a title-like suffix of some kind attached to his or her name. This was brought home to me one day recently when I was on my way to work. A seedy-looking character ran by me at top speed being chased by a convenience store clerk. As a result, a sensei in the US has in some cases become a godlike figure of power and authority.
Some countries seek to reproduce Japanese culture as exactly as they can.
Although I don't claim to have any answers, my experiences in Japan have exposed me to many different approaches to the challenges of adapting Aikido to other cultures. Personally, I must say I have come to appreciate one approach taken in Finland. In Finland, the Aikidoka got together as a group and decided they wanted to reflect the values of their own culture in their training and organization. But Aikido as it is practiced in Finland does not try to imitate Japanese culture. I don't know.