Can you cut down amount of sugar in USA cake/cookie recipes?

[TrucksAndDinosaurs]

Been making cookies following American recipes and whilst v nice they are teeth-grittingly sweet. If, for example, a cookie recipe wants 1.5 cups of packed brown sugar and a cup of butter, 2 cups oatmeal, 1.5 cups flour and an egg, plus a cup of choc chips, plus raisins or nuts, can I halve the amount of sugar? Or will that bugger up the chemistry/ ingredient proportions?

Baking powder and salt and vanilla also go in but I can't see that I need to change the amount of those ingredients. It's just the insane amount of sugar.

I can't believe anyone needs anything to taste that sweet.

You can reduce it significantly, I have found. I usually reduce it by one third because I don't know anythign about the chemistry end of baking and I worry about the texture if I take out too much.

Since Splenda came on the market I now wonder if I could take out far more without altering texture. You can use way less Splenda and they stay as sweet (I hate the aftertaste though) and texture remains the same as far as I can tell.

Yes probably. Watch your butter content if your reducing your sugar you may not need as much.

Thank you :)