On master 585cbe22575306c05b156ea90faa9caa1add4c87 make distcheck fails.
I managed to run it successfully with the following patch:
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -342,7 +342,7 @@ EXTRA_DIST += \
CLEANFILES = $(OSX_DMG) $(BITCOIN_WIN_INSTALLER)
-DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS = --enable-man
+DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS = --with-incompatible-bdb --disable-fuzz-binary --disable-tests
doc/doxygen/.stamp: doc/Doxyfile FORCE
$(MKDIR_P) $(@D)
Are we interested to support the distcheck target?