gsutil module 'sys' has no attribute 'maxint'

on several machines, by default cloud cli installation, on macOS 12.0.1 (python 2.7.18 and 3.8.9 installed) and gsutil v 5.5

Command: gsutil -m rsync -r ... ...
runs into
gsutil module 'sys' has no attribute 'maxint'

if it requires crcmod or whatever, a mention in the cli install process would be a huge time and pain saver.
Thx

Start by reproducing `gsutil -m rsync -r ... ...` on macOS 12.0.1 with the reported Python versions and inspect where the `sys.maxint` error occurs. Determine whether the failure is caused by the installation or crcmod requirement; done means the cause and any required installation guidance or fix are documented.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.