`make clean` removes config.status files and `make` fails thereafter

I am working on an Ubuntu 16.04 system. I am trying to compile ECL 23.9.9.

autoconf --version reports 2.69.

automake --version reports 1.15.

I see that ./configure creates some files named config.status. I can run ./configure and then execute make successfully. However, I see that make clean removes the config.status files and then make fails with an error message, "make: *** No rule to make target 'build/config.status', needed by 'Makefile'. Stop."

I can execute make clean and then ./configure again, and then execute make successfully. However, it seems unreasonable to require the extra ./configure step in between make clean and make; I believe I have never seen that in any project. I could be mistaken, I guess.