Austerity of centrists distorted society (10)

I believe the answer is:

strictness

'austerity' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'centrists distorted society' is the wordplay.
'distorted' is an anagram indicator.
'society' becomes 's' (common abbreviation in names of organisations).
'centrists' anagrammed gives 'strictnes'.
'strictnes'+'s'='STRICTNESS'

'of' is the link.

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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