American investigator among experts getting patronage (8)
I believe the answer is:
auspices
'patronage' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'american investigator among experts' is the wordplay.
'american' becomes 'us'.
'investigator' becomes 'pi' (I've seen this in other clues).
'among' is an insertion indicator.
'experts' becomes 'aces' (ace is a kind of expert).
'us'+'pi'='uspi'
'uspi' put within 'aces' is 'AUSPICES'.
'getting' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for auspices that I've seen before include "Under these, you have the help, support or protection of someone" , "Good offices" , "Omens or patronage for USA epics" .)