"That's ultimately his decision. I can understand why. Obviously, we've not performed as well as we wanted to. There's been some fairly hysterical commentary back home, which hasn't helped but ultimately it's up to Steve.
"We need to be proud of the journey that got us here. We need to be incredibly proud of our supporters. They've travelled in tens of thousands. They have lit up America."
Regarding the new contract that was announced in late May, Maxwell said: "We wanted to come into the competition in as stable a footing as possible. Extending his contract did that. It eliminated any talk about what was going to happen afterwards.
"Obviously, we find ourselves in a position that nobody wanted to be in. We wanted to perform well, we wanted to do what no Scotland team's ever done before in a group stage. We weren't able to achieve that."
And Maxwell praised Clarke's record, saying: "He's been incredible. If we had sat seven years ago when we appointed him and said, 'this is what the next seven years are going to look like', everybody would've bitten your hand off for it.
"He's been fantastic for us. The last thing that I would want is his reputation or legacy tarnished in any way, shape or form. It's important that we recognise the significant achievements that he's done.
"The meeting last night where he told the players, the emotion in that tells you how much they think of him and how much he thinks of them and we can't lose sight of that."