Sure, but I can't think of any institution that remained this way. But it is maybe because those who planned their own ending or vanishing have been forgotten...
You mentioned the ethereum foundation in another post, so I was wondering if it would be able to maintain its goal or if it would at some point just opt for survival as long as possible.
Yeah... we're asking for examples of something whose core properties include staying small and being forgotten. That's a bit like asking for perfect crimes - if we knew about them, they weren't perfect :)
Volunteer fire departments maybe? Emerged from neighbors helping each other, many still exist without credentials or gatekeeping. Just people with a truck.
As for Ethereum Foundation - it's one of the few where I actually see the process happening. They're not just talking about "subtraction", they're doing it - shrinking teams, pushing responsibility outward, actively resisting the natural pull toward empire. Plenty of issues, sure, but the direction is promising.
