My wife finished medical school a bit over 4 years ago. While she thought medical school was brutal, it was comparatively easy compared to the challenges she faced in residency (she did her prelim at UCLA-Harbor and is now at Boston Children's hospital doing pediatric neurology). 80+ hour work weeks are the norm, and sometimes she works 14 days straight and has a pager that beeps throughout the night that she must respond to before going in again in the morning.
After one does complete residency, it does seem to get a lot easier based on observing some of her friends that didn't do fellowships, especially if the person takes a more clinical job. But after all of that effort, a lot of people become attending physicians where they are putting in just as many hours, if not more, because it is more prestigious. Those are the people that run the teaching hospitals, so it feels like there is a lot of "I survived and it made me a better physician, you can too" mentality.
After one does complete residency, it does seem to get a lot easier based on observing some of her friends that didn't do fellowships, especially if the person takes a more clinical job. But after all of that effort, a lot of people become attending physicians where they are putting in just as many hours, if not more, because it is more prestigious. Those are the people that run the teaching hospitals, so it feels like there is a lot of "I survived and it made me a better physician, you can too" mentality.