... independent film pursuing question over America's demise (7)
I believe the answer is:
quietus
'demise' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'independent film pursuing question over america's' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'independent' could be 'us' (the puzzle setter and their Independent colleagues) and 'us' is located in the answer.
'film' could be 'et' (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial) and 'et' is found in the answer.
'question' could be 'qu' (abbreviation) and 'qu' is located in the answer.
A single letter 'i' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for quietus that I've seen before include "Final riddance - not quite quite us" , "Extinction, death" , "discharge" , "peace" , "Curtains" .)