. . . . automatic crossfades between clips when dropping a series of new clips onto the time line . . . .
No this has to be done after putting all the clips on the timeline and trimming as necessary - the quickest way is as follows:
Set the crossfade between the first 2 clips
Right click the Transition icon (orange/blue rectangle) at the start of the second clip - you may need to zoom in if it is not visible when the mouse hovers over the clip
From the popup dialog, select Apply to all the following objects in the track