Possible Clues:

• Post-apocalyptic society, say
• Today's pie virtually ruined — miserable state
• Dismal vision
• Terrible state of duck in pasty I'd cooked
• Nightmare as State knocked back help outside year block
• Depressing sci-fi setting
• Mince pasty I'd stuffed with nothing in awful state
• Gilead in 'The Handmaid's Tale,' for one
• Help revolutionary over variable period in US
• Work in a sty, I'd fancy there's no worse place