[Livrat]

The steering intermediate shaft has what is call a trunion bearing, it normally is not a severly worn item.. you could remove the shaft, pull off the snap ring and dissasemble and inspect.. more than likely it just needs a cleaning and new grease..
From the picture of your steering column it appears that the shaft is off center at the bottom, it most likely just needs a new lower bearing..
also is there a spring behind the big flat washer on the steering shaft? it is hard to see in the picture, it holds the lower bearing into the column