>That happened to me personally, actually. I got a series of promotions and was a VP before finally realizing how little I enjoyed it and that I was a much better developer than manager. In terms of peace of mind I have never regretted returning to the dark side ;-)

I once declined a CEO position (in a startup, while it wasn't in the diapers yet), but also was the boss to my programmers' team for a few months. My partner, who was the CEO, just hoisted the position on me, and said it's something I can do in half a day a week. After a while I just told him to get me back to where I was, salary be damned. The insult that, in his opinion, 4 hours of bossing were worth about 12 hours of programming was, in the end, what made it easier to leave and come here.