It's obvious I've been set back by the depression (7)
I believe the answer is:
evident
'it's obvious' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)
'i've been set back by the depression' is the wordplay.
'back' says to take the final letters (the letter at the back).
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'the depression' becomes 'evid' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
The last letters of 'ive been set' are 'ent'.
'ent' after 'evid' is 'EVIDENT'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for evident that I've seen before include "clearly visible" , "Visible - plain" , "on display" , "Quite obvious, easy to see" , "Readily apparent" .)