This is an issue with my x52 pro too, so I know exactly what you're talking about.
But it lasted many hours of flying for this problem to appear in the first place, until this point I was totally satisfied with that stick.
Some lubricant helped me out of this, just make sure you don't use something too liquid, this can even make the problem more worse.
I used some ball bearing grease and now it works like a charm again. So for me this is just a minor drawback on that otherwise really good piece of hardware.