Is there a timeout after which paused audio does not resume automatically?

Here is a typical situation and how it worked until several months ago:

1. I would listen to some audio (music, podcast, audio book... anything)
2. For some reason I would pause the playback
3. After a while I would touch my phone, the lock screen would come up WITH the playback mini controls, allowing me to resume playback for whatever was playing before

That is what I would consider normal/expected behaviour.

However, for the past several months my experience has been different. Things would work as described above ONLY if I try to resume the playback SHORTLY after I pause it. I have not exactly timed it but it seems to me the cut off is something like a couple of minutes. Any delay after that would result in inability to resume playback from the lock screen.

... Which means I have to unlock the phone, find the app that was playing before (Spotify, Podcasts, Audiobooks, etc.), navigate to the audio I want to resume and hit play. Not a big deal half the times but if I have to do this 10 times a day it becomes very annoying. And it can be really dangerous when I am driving! When I drive, I have the phone on a stand/holder in front of me. If for whatever reason I need to pause the playback and after a few minutes I want to resume it, normally I would touch the screen once to wake it up and once more on the play icon. Quick and simple, takes half a second. NOW, that option is gone and if I need to resume playback I have to fiddle further with the phone as described above.

What is going on here? Did Apple introduce some new timeout, a new setting perhaps?