Is it possible to remove the expand/collapse button from the jqGrid header?

Yes, there is an option for this: hidegrid: false

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From the jqGrid documentation wiki for Options:

hidegrid

boolean

Enables or disables the show/hide grid button, which appears on the right side of the Caption layer. Takes effect only if the caption property is not an empty string.

Use this code to colllapse all jqgrid on the page

elements = $('div.ui-jqgrid-bdiv');
elements.each(function() { $(this).css("display", "none"); });
elements = $('div.ui-jqgrid-hdiv');
elements.each(function() { $(this).css("display", "none"); });
$('#JQGrid_pager').hide();
$('#rs_mJQGrid').hide();