Intellectual work degraded during economic success (8)
I believe the answer is:
bookworm
'intellectual' is the definition.
(bookworm is a kind of intellectual)
'work degraded during economic success' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
an anagram of 'work' is 'kwor' which is present in the answer.
'success' could be 'boom' and 'boom' is found in the leftover letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for bookworm that I've seen before include "Person excessively fond of reading, like earth creature" , "One keen on reading" , "One who loves reading" , "Diligent student's" , "One devoted to reading" .)