pressing vol. button kills ringtone on incoming call

This happens with ios 16 and 17 on 2 different iphones 11. Recently, when I get a call the ring tone is a bit faint. If I press the side volume button (up or down) it stops the ring tone, but the call is still waiting to be answered. I'm sure that in the past pressing the volume button has changed the ring volume. Any one else had this problem? If yes, did you solve it and how?