This is definitely how the capital class views labor. Don’t be fooled, and ignore at your own peril.

I wouldn’t really consider someone that moved from middle management to upper management/executive leadership to be a part of the “capital class.”

Investors, board members, maybe even some CEOs, sure.

If they’re upper management, they are tasked with doing the dirty work for capital. That’s their job.

That doesn’t mean they don’t care though. Now this could come from spending time at a company where the executives were only ~3 levels of indirection from devs.

It's not that the career change makes them not care about people. It's that it's practically impossible to get into upper management without eating others. People who don't embrace their sociopathic tendencies don't make it - they get out-competed by those who do. The very occasional exception just proves the rule, and usually doesn't last in any case because once they get to that point, they still have to compete to remain there.