Then something was wrong because that take down lever is real easy to operate. Only the Beretta 96/92 has an easier one.
Something *is* wrong, definitely. I'm not the only one; there's YouTube videos and forum threads on this topic.
I have two of them in 45 ACP and they both require a ridiculous amount of force to rotate the lever.
Forcing the lever doesn't break anything, but it doesn't seem to loosen it with repetition. Its just extremely tight.