Downfall of some nepotistic old world leaders (4)
I believe the answer is:
snow
'downfall' is the definition.
(I know that snow is a type of downfall)
'some nepotistic old world leaders' is the wordplay.
'some' becomes 's' (this could be a standard abbreviation of which I'm unaware).
'leaders' indicates taking the first letters.
The initial letters of 'nepotistic old world' is 'now'.
's'+'now'='SNOW'
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for snow that I've seen before include "feature of 27 [THE BIG FREEZE]" , "White specks on screen resulting from interference" , "form of water" , "Vessel" , "Standard of whiteness" .)