The handling on my car has deteriorated significantly over the past month or so, and I am fearing it has to do with my rear struts, can someone tell me how to determine a rear strut is blown.

I raised the car and checked if there is any oil spewed on the strut and negative, everything looks fine. No oil except some dust ...

 

Try pushing on the rear of your car. If the shocks are blown, the body of the car will start bouncing up and down after your release it.

What makes you think it's the shocks? What exactly has changed?

 

Isn't the bounce test effective on the fronts and less on the rear, I did do the bounce test and it springs back to normal. The reason I doubt the rear struts is 3 things..

1) Metal to Metal scraping from the muffler end of the car, which I confirmed is not got to do with hangers, broken clamps that hold the muffler to the chassis.
2) My ride when I go over a small bump starts to sway right to left and it is happening from the back -- like something is tied to the rear that pushes the car sideways.
3) The ride itself seems to be uncomfortable, I have replaced the front struts and have ordered the end links, I need to replace them too..

Any ideas...

 

When I had a bad rear (stock) strut I didn't really notice any degradation in ride quality (surprisingly), I just heard a knocking/clunking sound when going over uneven pavement, particularly when going over speed bumps.