The Ethereum Foundation (EF) currently consistents of legal entities and numerous, independent teams which are self-organized, but coordinate. The original Stiftung Ethereum legal entity in Zug has adopted a mission to promote and support the Ethereum platform, and this is expressed by the greater EF in the funding of operations, research, development, events, and grants.
Certain teams have a much stronger influence due to their legal/jurisdictional position and capacity to allocate resources. Some teams are more under the control of the resource-bearing teams e.g. operations. Generally, however, the EF is decentralized.
Presentation at EthCC Paris 2019: Self-Organizing In A Decentralized Galaxy by Jamie Pitts
A key asset of the EF is its trademark "Ethereum". How this is enforced says a lot about the orientation of the EF toward the community.
"Ethereum Foundation didn't take down Ethereum Classic with a trademark" - Virgil Griffith
Certain stakeholders at the Ethereum Foundation advocate that the organization continue to decentralize, possibly even atomize and cease to exist except in the most minimal form.
Evidence of this orientation can be found in the following:
Ethereum Foundation Spring 2019 Update
Even as we deploy significant resources across the ecosystem to improve Ethereum, we must do so in a way that maintains the core spirit of decentralization. We have deliberately adopted a philosophy of subtraction, which informs everything that we do.
In plain language, following a philosophy of subtraction means resisting the natural tendency of organizations to grow and accumulate value within themselves, and ensure instead that this value is created outside the Foundation in the broader Ethereum ecosystem.
Possibly: Control as Liability by Vitalik Buterin
Decentralization by Elimination - Summer 2018 presentation by Aya Miyaguchi and Albert Ni
"Decentralization has become a buzzword. A marketing gimmick. Without the elimination of centralized authorities, there cannot be true decentralization. How does an organization eliminate itself for the better future of the decentralized web?"
"Actually yes. We want the Foundation to, eventually, no longer exist." - Virgil Griffith