diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 135614d2235360cbb2ee6a64a182263faacebe0c..db6268cebc5e877c3f68fa352f3e87b58fcd70bf 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ clean:
 	make -C tests clean
 	make -C pydist clean
 	find . -name '*.py[co]' -delete
-	rm -f .coverage $(MANPAGES)
+	rm -f .coverage
 
 install-dev:
 	$(INSTALL) -m 755 -d $(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/bin \
@@ -28,14 +28,6 @@ install-runtime:
 
 install: install-dev install-runtime
 
-%.1: %.rst
-	rst2man $< > $@
-
-%.html: %.rst
-	rst2html $< > $@
-
-manpages: $(MANPAGES)
-
 dist_fallback:
 	make -C pydist $@
 
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index ed933132c8f2453ff9171972f1abd3d8638f042e..69b840e0afff025b7b4126af4916ea18d3d9886a 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -17,6 +17,9 @@ python-defaults (2.7.7-1) UNRELEASED; urgency=medium
   * Clarify discussion of requirement to use python:Provides (Closes: #669346)
   * Add clarification of naming requirements for submocules (Closes: #701192)
   * Minor cleanups in debian/pyversions.py
+  * Stop automatically regenerating static content (dh_python2 man pages and
+    Python FAQ) and drop build-dep on python-docutils to ease bootstrapping
+    (Closes: #754060)
 
  -- Matthias Klose <doko@debian.org>  Mon, 02 Jun 2014 19:54:25 +0200
 
diff --git a/debian/rules b/debian/rules
index 7fca98ef70d2ff1fc9bc3a8632b9f7357e4603ed..f9a4981247c699be28216eb6f67bbee442beca8c 100755
--- a/debian/rules
+++ b/debian/rules
@@ -81,6 +81,7 @@ endif
 
 faqs = index general programming library extending windows gui installed
 get-faq:
+	# Note: This rule is broken due to web site reorg at python.org
 	rm -rf faq
 	mkdir faq
 	cd faq && \
@@ -95,6 +96,14 @@ get-faq:
 	) >> faq/FAQ.ht
 	rm -f faq/index.ht
 
+MANPAGES ?= dh_python2.1 pycompile.1 pyclean.1
+
+%.1: %.rst
+	rst2man $< > $@
+
+# Manually run this rule if there is a need to update the dh_python2 man pages
+make-man: $(MANPAGES)
+
 clean: control-file
 	dh_testdir
 	dh_testroot
@@ -103,7 +112,6 @@ clean: control-file
 
 	rm -f debian/python-policy.txt
 	rm -rf debian/python-policy.html
-	rm -f faq/*.h2 faq/*.html
 
 	set -e;\
 	for f in debian/*.in; do \