Possible Clues:

• Inclination of general, say, about to lose power
• Cube, gift-wrapped? This may be steep
• Incline to concede, about to fail
• Slope: garden with it is dodgy
• One is inclined to be up like this
• Treading (anag) — slope
• One's inclined to stop during Ulysses
• Slope or incline
• Level of steepness
• Incline to fail, interrupting scholarship perhaps