Yes that's true. For the likes of Cameron, Johnson etc., politics has been a game, with them wanting to get the top job, and once there not caring about the impact of their decisions on peoples' day to day lives.
I've had debates with people about how much blame Cameron deserves. I personally think that even beyond the decision to promise / hold the referendum in the first place, he deserves even more blame that he has received. He arrogantly thought that he was a political genius and unbeatable n elections / campaigns after the 2015 GE win (as confirmed by numerous other people), his government's excessive austerity programme was a major reason why many people voted to leave, his campaigning style was terrible and overly negative, his previous ridiculous and undeliverable pledges to cut net migration drastically were a huge open goal for the leave campaign, his and his party's disgusting and vicious 2015 GE campaign had already inflamed big divisions in the country, he had spent 6 years as PM repeatedly criticising the EU and even blaming it for the effects of his own government's excessive austerity, he didn't do anywhere near enough to counter lies from his Tory colleagues on the Vote Leave side for party political reasons etc. I've always thought that enough people to swing the outcome voted leave, mainly to give Cameron (or him and Osborne) a kicking.
It was like he was a Vote Leave 'plant', with the aim of destroying the Remain campaign from within.