Accepted practice in America failing people ultimately (5)
I believe the answer is:
usage
'accepted practice' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'america failing people ultimately' is the wordplay.
'america' becomes 'usa' (synonyms).
'ultimately' says to take the final letters.
The final letters of 'failing people' are 'ge'.
'usa'+'ge'='USAGE'
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for usage that I've seen before include "Terminology - custom" , "Acceptable language" , "Tradition - rate of consumption" , "Silly little thing" , "phraseology" .)