Very 'dependent' horse! Advice?

..I've always kind of thought this about my horse I just never knew how to put it into words, but he's extremely dependent on me for everything when in the saddle. Like, the opposite of a push button pony.
Obviously there are the things that he's just going to know and do, such as knowing leads in the arena, but some of the other things I feel like he's completely dependent on me to almost do for him!
I'm sure I'm sounding like jibberish right now, but I'll try to clarify.
If I am not sitting perfectly in the saddle, he's heavy on the forehand. If I'm distracted for a split second, he gets off task (like swerves, etc). When we do figure eights in the arena and I don't put the right amount of pressure on his side and the rein, he doesn't switch leads. I feel like by now he should be able to do all this simple stuff without me having to 'baby sit' him. Not necessarily a push button pony, but closer to that than what he is right now.
Maybe I'm expecting too much, but I'm slightly frustrated right now.
Any advice/comments are appreciated!

The best thing I can recommend for you, is to do everything on the ground first.
So for figure 8's: Do them on the ground with him, and a walk and trot. The first few times do it with holding the lead rope - sort of guiding him, but have as much slack as possible. Then after he gets good at those, try doing it with just him following you - not holding onto the lead rope. Sometimes I find that if I have an extra rope, I will drape it over my elbow - to make it look like I'm holding him, and will still follow.

Sounds more like he is trying to keep you on task. When you 'quit' riding, he stops working. Actually, that would be an honest horse, not a dependent one.

I'm not sure if you can change this that much, its nice to have a balance but some horses are definitely more reliant on a rider than others and can't seem to think for themselves. Our warmblood mare would go through something (or over it) if you didnt ask her to go around it
I actually prefer that to the ones that become robotic and take things into their own hands like my pinto does - if you repeat a schooling pattern just a few times she'll do it on her own - which is really a pain when you want her to do something else.