Woodward's reporting is classic investigative journalism. He's one of the two reporters who broke the original Watergate story. From the books I've read, he avoids speculation and he only reports what he can corroborate based on firsthand accounts. Regarding what you call "cognitive dissonance" – I assume you're referring to President Biden and not Woodward – this is discussed multiple times in War and Woodward doesn't shy away from it.

Woodward writes about a time when Biden had taken a friend on a private tour through the residences of the White House, and when they came upon a picture of his son Beau Biden, the President seemed to become "transfixed" on it (my words, I'm paraphrasing from memory) and couldn't stop talking about his son for what seemed like an uncomfortable amount of time.

He also wrote about another time during Biden's reelection campaign where Biden went to a private fundraising event in Silicon Valley and seemed so "out of it" (again, my words, paraphrasing from memory) that one of the SV bigwigs there called Biden's chief of staff with grave concerns about the President's health and ability to run for reelection.

The book is well worth the read, whether you're a Trump supporter, Biden supporter or just interested in politics and foreign policy in general.