Powerful organisation’s wretched cop-outs (7)
I believe the answer is:
octopus
'powerful organisation's' is the definition.
(octopus can mean a sinister organisation)
'wretched cop-outs' is the wordplay.
'wretched' indicates anagramming the letters.
'cop'+'outs'='copouts'
'copouts' is an anagram of 'OCTOPUS'.
(Other definitions for octopus that I've seen before include "Marine cephalopod" , "Spineless creature" , "Sea-creature" , "Eight-limbed mollusc" , "Tentacled sea creature" .)