I have seen my touch layer flex a little while using it, but it never occured to me that there's a gap between display and touch layer.
Well, I just checked. It feels as if there is a gap. If I press "softly" I just feel the touch layer. If I press a little more, I can actually feel the resistance go up as soon as the touch layer contacts the display. But it must have been this way for the last 3 months.
So I assume this as normal. I have never tried pressing so hard before, so I didn't notice. But this would declare why the text (depending on the viewing angle) sometimes looks as if its behind glass.