catkin_make is looking for package.xml in wrong directory?

edit

EDIT: I still haven't found a definitive answer (so I am not posting this as an answer), but I got frustrated, re-installed ROS, and took great care to update my ROS_PACKAGE_PATH environment variable as instructed here. I would still like to see a complete explanation of the solution if possible, but now I can let the community know that this question is not longer urgent for me.

Hi. I am trying to complete the actionlib tutorials. This issue is mostly unrelated to actionlib. Can someone please help me resolve this problem?

I am trying to create a new catkin package for the tutorial. My shell commands go like this:

cd
source /opt/ros/hydro/setup.bash
mkdir -p ROS_TUTORIALS/actionlib_ws/src
cd ROS_TUTORIALS/actionlib_ws/src
catkin_init_workspace
cd ..
catkin_make
source devel/setup.bash
cd src
catkin_create_pkg learning_actionlib actionlib message_generation roscpp rospy std_msgs actionlib_msgs
# I add some files and change CMakeLists.txt as specified here:
# http://wiki.ros.org/actionlib_tutorials/Tutorials/SimpleActionServer%28ExecuteCallbackMethod%29
cd ../..
catkin_make

The error I get is this:

CMake Error: File /home/<username>/ROS_TUTORIALS/actionlib_ws/src/package.xml does not exist.
CMake Error at /opt/ros/hydro/share/catkin/cmake/stamp.cmake:10 (configure_file):
  configure_file Problem configuring file
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  /opt/ros/hydro/share/catkin/cmake/catkin_package_xml.cmake:61 (stamp)
  /opt/ros/hydro/share/catkin/cmake/catkin_package_xml.cmake:39 (_catkin_package_xml)
  /opt/ros/hydro/share/catkin/cmake/catkin_package.cmake:95 (catkin_package_xml)
  CMakeLists.txt:7 (catkin_package)

This is preceded by some success/status messages, and further error messages follow (they are dependent on the above error) .

I have reviewed the tutorials, and repeated them several times, and my directory appears to have the correct structure. For clarification:

actionlib_ws/        # the catkin workspace
   src/
      CMakeLists.txt
      learning_actionlib/
         package.xml
         CMakeLists.txt
         ...
         src/
            ...
   devel/
      ...
   build/
      ...

Sorry if I wrote too much, I wanted to help whoever tries to answer my question as much as possible. Thanks in advance for any help!