EA has owned Maxis since 1997, so yes, they were the parent company all the way back to the Original TS1, @Cinebar. THey aren't just the publisher, they are the parent company. I blame EA more than Maxis for alot of the misteps that the franchise has taken along the way, but it is indeed fair to point out that they have always had a say in things for the franchise since the beginning.
It's not at all accurate to say that everything is up to Maxis, though. With in-house studios, which is what Maxis is (actually several studios under the Maxis division umbrella) management of the parent company is involved to some degree in the entire process. The extent of that involvement largely depends on the parent company's culture and management philosophies.
But ultimately, when they can fire and replace anyone they choose all the way up to the top level at Maxis, they definitely have a ton of influence.
Also, because they are the parent company, it's natural for the "company culture" to permeate throughout. That takes time though, and is why i blame EA more than Maxis. The culture of EA was not the same as the culture of Maxis originally, and it took time for EA's culture to permeate Maxis after the acquisition. What we see now is the final result of that. Especially considering for a time Maxis studios was dissolved completely before being reformed within EA...what we have now is just the name and logo, nothing of the original studio remains.
