“I think the Pope would love to disband all the national bishops’ conferences.”
He did make a somewhat passive-aggressive gesture to the Italian Council of Bishops. It had been traditional for the Pope to appoint the head of the Italian Council. Benedict XVI when asked to appoint the next head told them to just go and select their own head!
That’s a start. All the “respect” they receive from the Pope and the rest of the heirarchy is based on absolutely nothing. They have no canonical status, and in fact I don’t believe that bishops in a given country can even be required to be members of that country’s council. Naturally, most of them don’t have enough backbone not to join, of course.