Period of uncertainty and confusion — city insiders have it sorted out (8,6)
I believe the answer is:
identity crisis
'period of uncertainty' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how they can define each other.
'confusion city insiders have it sorted out' is the wordplay.
'confusion' indicates anagramming the letters.
'have' indicates putting letters inside.
'sorted out' is an anagram indicator.
'city'+'insiders'='cityinsiders'
'cityinsiders' is an anagram of 'identycrisis'.
'it' is an anagram of 'ti'.
'identycrisis' placed around 'ti' is 'IDENTITY CRISIS'.
'and' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for identity crisis that I've seen is " wondering who one is".)