The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 8 letter word SHUFFLED
I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
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More clues leading to the result SHUFFLED
Buddy explains!

The straight part
We know that "made faltering progress" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case made faltering progress = shuffled.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does SHUFFLED mean?
SHUFFLED verb- To put in a random order.
- To change; modify the order of something.
- To move in a slovenly, dragging manner; to drag or scrape the feet in walking or dancing.
- To change one's position; to shift ground; to evade questions; to resort to equivocation; to prevaricate.
- To use arts or expedients; to make shift.
- To shove one way and the other; to push from one to another.
- To remove or introduce by artificial confusion.
- Jumbled together.