Self Responsibility in Practice

Richard Gombrich has expressed the idea that Buddhism is a kind of "religious individualism" (1988, p.72). What he means by this is that in Buddhism, it's entirely up to the practitioner to decide how and to what extent she or he will practice to liberate themselves or come to realization of the key teachings of Dharma. Nobody else is going to do this for oneself, and what's more is that the emphasis becomes on self-examination. Could we say that in this regard, Buddhism preaches a kind of 'ultimate responsibility', in the sense that one is left up to one's own devices to move ahead or fall behind in practice?
   I believe that from a Theravada perspective, this would seem quite correct, but in another way, I challenge this idea by asking the question, 'who' is taking ultimate responsibility or thinks in terms of responsibility/non-responsibility? This question goes to the core of asking what we can say is permanent and enduring about Buddhist teachings. While 'self-examination' may be just a convenient expression, it makes me wonder, is there ever a single coherent self that moves through these teachings in distinct stages? Is 'ultimate responsibility' even something that can be experienced by someone, or is it only an abstract framing that is used to structure a person's thinking about life and practice?
    I tend to think that too much emphasis on 'self-responsibility' in practice ends up missing the way in which all thoughts about the self are only temporary and illusory in the first place. If I don't see that, I will always be projecting onto the world some picture of myself which I take to be real and enduring. While it's important to choose areas of life that can be enriching to one's practice, I don't think that it's necessary that people punish themselves with strict or tense notions of what they should and shouldn't do. This kind of tension only reinforces the illusion of a self, which then leads to a struggle between self and non-self.

Gombrich, Richard (1988). Theravada Buddhism: A social history from ancient Benares to modern Colombo. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul.