I think the truth lies in the middle ground. I'm sure that many CEO's work insanely hard, especially at smaller firms. With that being said, the difference is often that a CEO can work immensely hard for themselves, whereas many find it harder to work hard for a salary.

Any CEO's that say "people don't want to work" should run a simple experiment: change to hourly pay, and pay people for how many hours they work, with no limit on hours. I'm sure they'll see a lot of people that aren't afraid to "work".

I'm sure many of them mean that they don't want to deal with bullshit in order to get to a management role, though. In some cases this can be true, but for many industries getting above a certain level is just unattainable for most, and few people realise that their position is one of privilege and luck, alongside a lot of effort on their end.