Sorry Eckhard, you're not differentialting between steady state climb or descent and the transition from level to climbing or descending. In steady state climb or descent the vertical component of lift is always 1g - you only need more or less than that to initiate the climb or descent.
As has been said already
I don't think descending changes it, except for when actually initiating the descent, which slightly changes the required load factor for the duration the aircraft is accelerating downward.