Trackpad / mouse click control degrades or corrupts within an hour or longer

Basically, over an hour, sometimes longer - the click of the mouse / trackpad ceases to have any effect. Using an external mouse, the left-click also has no effect. Right-click on the external mouse / Ctrl-click on the trackpad generally continues to work. I have generally been in the middle of something so I would proceed as far as I could using only the right-click.
(Of interest, sometimes - like in this forum - the right-click on my mouse and the ctrl-click on the trackpad do not do exactly the same thing - but I think that is just how the page has been coded.)
I am still able to move the pointer anywhere on the screen, that does not seem to be a problem.
I have tried to open the system preferences to see if something was odd in the mouse settings but have been unable to get to the specific panel without the click function.
This is the second time I have drafted this post. The first time, the problem occurred and I was unable to click the "post message" button at the end of the form.
The only way I can find to fix the problem is to restart my Macbook. But the problem can recur in less than an hour - I had just restarted before I started the first draft of this post.
Has anyone else seen this behaviour? Any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
W

Hi Barney, thanks for the response.
I went through the "resetting the SMC" troubleshooting before resetting the SMC. The very last thing they suggested I try was shutting down the MacBook and removing and then replacing the battery.
I could not do that. As soon as I lifted up the MacBook to get at the battery bay, I could see that the battery was swollen to the point that it (the battery) was no longer sitting flush with the bottom of the Macbook.
I have seen this before it happened when my MacBook was still under AppleCare - that time I discovered it while dusting off my computer area. That time, they just replaced the battery.
I remembered having read something about the battery swelling recently, and scanned the SMC resetting article several time before returning to your response, where of course I found it.
Seems like you hit on the issue right away: swollen battery which is (I am assuming) placing pressure on the trackpad which is eventually malfunctioning.
My MacBook's AppleCare has expired. How do I assess whether to buy a replacement battery or just bite the bullet and get another computer - obviously an unplanned computer purchase wouldn't be a thrilling option, but I also don't want to waste money on a battery just to be forced to purchase another computer soon anyway :-/
W

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