Improve API test suite

[dpopp07]

The test suite for the API has gotten out of hand and a lot of it is because of the stupid "DB has mysteriously disappeared" check. Rather than setting up data for every test individually, there should be a single loading of a bunch of data and each test will rely on that. Should save a lot of unnecessary time, should fix the timeout and race condition issues, and should make the tests more maintainable. Right now they are a huge headache.