The Fourier transform is the diagonalization of the differential operator $L=\frac{1}{i}\frac{d}{dt}$. If $e_{s}(t) = \frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi}}e^{ist}$, then
$$
\{ e_{s} \}_{s=-\infty}^{\infty}
$$
are the eigenfunctions $Le_{s}=se_{s}$ with real eigenvalue $s$, and these form a type of "continuous" orthonormal basis for diagonalizing $L$. That is,
$$
f=\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}(f,e_s)e_s\,ds,
$$
which is analogous to the discrete Fourier series of orthonormal eigenfunctions $\{ e_n \}_{n=-\infty}^{\infty}$ of $L$ with $Le_n=ne_n$:
$$
f = \sum_{n=-\infty}^{\infty}(f,e_n)e_n.
$$
Both of these expansions diagonalize the differentiation operator $L$ on their respect intervals. Because of this diagonalization,
$$
Lf = \int_{-\infty}^{\infty}(f,e_s)se_s\,ds,\\
Lf = \sum_{n=-\infty}^{\infty}(f,e_n)ne_n.
$$
Parseval's equality holds, which is equivalent to the completeness of the set of eigenfunctions:
$$
\|f\|^{2}_{L^{2}(\mathbb{R})} = \int_{-\infty}^{\infty}|(f,e_s)|^{2}ds,\\
\|f\|^{2}_{L^{2}[-\pi,\pi]} = \sum_{n=-\infty}^{\infty}|(f,e_n)|^{2}.
$$
All of this is made precise in spectral theory, and it agrees with how these expansions were originally conceived by Fourier. The transform is really a coefficient function for the expansions of $f$ in terms of the eigenfunctions. As such, it is a type of "orthogonal" projection of $f$ onto $e_s$ given through the coefficient function $\hat{f}(s)=(f,e_s)$. So, yes, it may be interpreted as a frequency; it's the coefficient of $e_s$ needed to reconstruct $f$ in terms of the basis functions $\{ e_s \}$.
Technically $e_s$ is not in the space, but any continuous sum of such elements, say $\int_{\lambda-\epsilon}^{\lambda+\epsilon}e_{s}ds$ is in $L^{2}(\mathbb{R})$, and is very nearly an eigenfunction with eigenvalue $\lambda$, which still leads to a discrete approximation in terms of near eigenfunctions, that would be interpreted as a wave packet by those who want to view this in terms of time functions $e_{s}(t)$. A Mathematician does not need to view this in terms of time; it's a function expansion in the continuous spectral elements of $L$, and is a diagonal representation of $L$ as multiplication by $s$, which is typical of selfadjoint operators on a Hilbert space, and is analogous to the diagonalization of selfajdoint matrices in its eigenvectors.
There are other ways to view all of this in terms of translation /multiplication groups, but this approach is the closest to the original History of the subject.