Have to hold down power button to trigger powerbtn.sh in Acer laptop but that powers it down

I am running Linux Mint on an Acer Aspire E 5 574G.

The problem I am facing is, I have to press and hold the power button for a bit to trigger the lock screen or suspend or whatever option I have set in the power management section. But if I hold it for even half a second longer, the machine powers down.

Is there a way to make it respond to a tap of the power button and not a hold down?

When I tried to test detecting the power button tap with xev, it couldn't. Holding it did detect the stroke though.

The following is the system details:

thekindlyone@deepthought ~ $ inxi -F
System:    Host: deepthought Keel: 4.4.0-28-generic x86_64 (64 bit)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.0.6  Distro: Linux Mint 18 Sarah
Machine:   System: Acer product: Aspire E5-574G v: V3.72
           Mobo: Acer model: Zoro_SL v: Type2 - A01 Board Version
           Bios: Insyde v: V1.02 date: 08/25/2015
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core i5-6200U (-HT-MCP-) cache: 3072 KB 
           clock speeds: max: 2700 MHz 1: 496 MHz 2: 499 MHz 3: 499 MHz
           4: 499 MHz
Graphics:  Card-1: Intel Sky Lake Integrated Graphics
           Card-2: NVIDIA GK208M [GeForce 920M]
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.3 driver: nvidia
           Resolution: [email protected]
           GLX Renderer: GeForce 920M/PCIe/SSE2
           GLX Version: 4.5.0 NVIDIA 361.42
Audio:     Card Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.0-28-generic
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Etheet Controller
           driver: r8169
           IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: 2c:60:0c:dd:94:59
           Card-2: Qualcomm Atheros Device 0042 driver: ath10k_pci
           IF: wlp3s0 state: up speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: 18:4f:32:44:7e:b5
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 1000.2GB (4.1% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: ST1000LM024_HN size: 1000.2GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 909G used: 31G (4%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 8.45GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda3
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod keel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 46.0C mobo: N/A gpu: 39C
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 236 Uptime: 4 min Memory: 1540.3/7850.1MB
           Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.2.35 

the following is contents of /etc/acpi/events :

event=button[ /]power
action=/etc/acpi/powerbtn.sh

and this is /etc/acpi/powerbtn.sh :

#!/bin/sh
# /etc/acpi/powerbtn.sh
# Initiates a shutdown when the power putton has been
# pressed.

[ -r /usr/share/acpi-support/power-funcs ] && . /usr/share/acpi-support/power-funcs

# If logind is running, it already handles power button presses; desktop
# environments put inhibitors to logind if they want to handle the key
# themselves.
if pidof systemd-logind >/dev/null; then
    exit 0
fi

# getXuser gets the X user belonging to the display in $displaynum.
# If you want the foreground X user, use getXconsole!
getXuser() {
        user=`pinky -fw | awk '{ if ($2 == ":'$displaynum'" || $(NF) == ":'$displaynum'" ) { print $1; exit; } }'`
        if [ x"$user" = x"" ]; then
                startx=`pgrep -n startx`
                if [ x"$startx" != x"" ]; then
                        user=`ps -o user --no-headers $startx`
                fi
        fi
        if [ x"$user" != x"" ]; then
                userhome=`getent passwd $user | cut -d: -f6`
                export XAUTHORITY=$userhome/.Xauthority
        else
                export XAUTHORITY=""
        fi
        export XUSER=$user
}

# Skip if we just in the middle of resuming.
test -f /var/lock/acpisleep && exit 0

# If the current X console user is running a power management daemon that
# handles suspend/resume requests, let them handle policy This is effectively
# the same as 'acpi-support's '/usr/share/acpi-support/policy-funcs' file.

[ -r /usr/share/acpi-support/power-funcs ] && getXconsole
PMS="cinnamon-settings-daemon gnome-settings-daemon kpowersave xfce4-power-manager"
PMS="$PMS guidance-power-manager.py dalston-power-applet"
PMS="$PMS mate-settings-daemon"
PMS="$PMS unity-settings-daemon"

if pidof -x $PMS > /dev/null; then
        exit
elif test "$XUSER" != "" && pidof dcopserver > /dev/null && test -x /usr/bin/dcop && /usr/bin/dcop --user $XUSER kded kded loadedModules | grep -q klaptopdaemon; then
        exit
elif test "$XUSER" != "" && test -x /usr/bin/qdbus; then
        kded4pid=$(pgrep -n -u $XUSER kded4)
        if test "$kded4pid" != ""; then
                dbusaddr=$(su - $XUSER -c "grep -z DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS /proc/$kded4pid/environ")
                if test "$dbusaddr" != "" && su - $XUSER -c "export $dbusaddr; qdbus org.kde.kded" | grep -q powerdevil; then
                        exit
                fi
        fi
fi

# If all else failed, just initiate a plain shutdown.
/sbin/shutdown -h now "Power button pressed"

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