Lack of originality seen in special interests (9)
I believe the answer is:
triteness
'lack of originality' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'special interests' is the wordplay.
'special' indicates anagramming the letters.
'interests' with letters rearranged gives 'TRITENESS'.
'seen in' is the link.
(Other definitions for triteness that I've seen before include "Lack of originality" , "Interests in the commonplace" , "Banality" , "dullness" , "Interests of some staleness" .)