Particular issue very much distracted them in Government (9)
I believe the answer is:
something
'particular issue' is the definition.
'very much distracted them in government' is the wordplay.
'very much' becomes 'so'.
'distracted' is an anagram indicator.
'government' becomes 'g'.
'them' is an anagram of 'meth'.
'so'+'meth'+'in'+'g'='SOMETHING'
(Other definitions for something that I've seen before include "It's not nothing" , "Special quality" , "Unspecified item" , "unknown" .)