Intelligence about Liberal collapse (4)
I believe the answer is:
wilt
'collapse' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'intelligence about liberal' is the wordplay.
'intelligence' becomes 'wit' (wit is a kind of intelligence).
'about' is an insertion indicator.
'liberal' becomes 'l' (abbreviation).
'wit' going around 'l' is 'WILT'.
(Other definitions for wilt that I've seen before include "Lose strength and become limp" , "lose energy?" , "Shrivel and collapse" , "(Of plant) become limp" , "fade" .)