Interesting, I don't think that decentralization and authority go hand in hand. Authority can be centralized or distributed, but it is still authority.
I guess it comes down to what one considers authority.
Ecosystem solution is neat. Steem almost got there with communities and SMTs. I believe people hijacked that before it happened because some ecosystems (ie. bid bot communities) need other systems to leech off of since there content isn't valuable. Actually, there is a lot of content that aren't valuable and will end up in low functioning ecosystems.
So many things need to be defined when it comes to discussing decentralisation, I'm sure half the time we end up talking passed each other!
As to leeching I was wondering where parasites might fit in to the equation, couldn't quite figure that one out!