After further troubleshooting I've found that loosening the ***** which is responsible for the clicking effect solved the problem. The touchpad needed more space to move. How this could have happened by itself initially, don't ask, magic!
So the solution which worked for me:
open up the mac book
remove the battery
loosen the big ***** which is pushing the touchpad against the shell a little bit, so the clicking effect is there fully.
Hope this helps someone. You will need a whole bunch of specialized screwdrivers for this. I needed 4 different ones.